Freedom of Education

By ERIC WADE

Freedom of Education

            Education is important. It’s more important than war. It’s more important than expensive social programs, but it’s harder yearly to get help with higher education, while public schools across the state complain that there is not enough money.

            Without quality education, America hires from outside its borders to fill high paying jobs that we’re not qualified for. Poor education creates a class system with lifelong depends on government programs. For some trying to get out of the life they were born into, the military is the only option with its promise of a college education on the chance they make it through war.

            Military men fight bravely for freedom, but freedom is much more than occupation of foreign countries. Freedom is living free of government influence. Freedom is going to a job that pays enough to survive.  Freedom is not having to check a food stamp card to see how much food can afforded.

            America has passed an age of our father and grandfathers. We are past the time when it took blood, sweat and tears to build this nation to what it is. It is past the large factories pumping out products bring this country prosperity.

            Now America is a country of coders, processes, and data-entrepreneurs, but our country is showing up late to the global game. Being secure in industrialism, we thought it would never end, but it has, and the people succeeding are the smart one—the ones with skills no longer learned on the factory floor, but in the classrooms of our country.

            With our future so deeply rooted in education, we sure have a funny way of showing that we as a country want to be the best.

             Ask an elementary school teacher about our education system, in a district with decline student population, and they will tell you about the cuts—the cuts that rob the new youth of art, music and gym. They say that what’s important are the core education of Math, English and science.

            Core studies are important, but it’s the other studies that keep kids interested in school. In some cases, the other activities may be the only thing that keeps them in school. The lack of interest in education goes beyond grade school.

            It is harder to get a good paying job without college and student debt is sky rocketing. Tuition is increasing, and interest rates on student loans are double that of 2012.  Higher education is needed more now than ever. We compete in many global markets, and the only way America will survive is by investing in the education it’s citizens.

            Unfortunately, higher education is not an option for many—it cost too much—they suffer and America suffers too, leaving behind many talented people.

            Our country and our planet are fixed in a world where the mind is more important than the body or how much we produce. In our world, it is a necessity to have an educated mind to survive, but as a country, we are not putting enough into our own education to survive well in the future. We need to invest in education, not fight wars or spend money on expensive social systems.