It’s time to defend education

Friday, February 3, 2012

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Newly arrived immigrants and American citizens with deep roots always have the same message for their children – study and get a good education, because that is how to succeed.

Knowledge is power and education is the key to prosperity, and everyone knows it. That is why Thomas Jefferson and others advocated for a public school system and Jefferson founded one of the best public universities in America.

As Jefferson said, “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. … the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is to be effected.”

Past American leaders understood the role and responsibility of government in education: to make individuals and communities stronger and more successful, businesses competitive and successful, and America safer and able to elevate its citizens’ standard of living and quality of life.

Do our present leaders share that belief and reflect that vision?

Unfortunately, and rather shockingly, education has become deeply politicized. When I was on the Education and Labor Committee in Congress, some members showed their contempt for public education by saying “government-run” schools, instead of public schools. They worked then, and still do, to discredit educators and dismantle the public school system, or to divert funding to private schools.

Schools and teachers have received withering attacks from state legislators across the country who have tried to pass legislation undermining the curriculum, denying science, and trying to force the teaching of creationism.

Some politicians don’t take ideological votes against schools; they just find it an easier target when cutting funding, and they don’t fully consider the consequences.

Benjamin Franklin’s words echo across the ages as a reminder and a warning, “The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country.”

Cutting school budgets is a short-term solution that will result in an even greater long-term problem.

The U.S. was already lagging behind other countries before the tea party state and national representatives took over state houses and the U.S. House. A 2010 CBS series found that compared to 30 comparable countries, American students were ranked 25th in math and 21st in science.

Nationally, only 75 percent of our students graduate from high school. We are not No. 1, and as the vice president’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, said, “Any country that out-educates us will out-compete us.”

Money alone won’t solve all of our problems. But to cut funding when we’re already in a very precarious state defies logic and reminds me of the old and wise saying, “penny-wise, pound-foolish.”

So, how foolish are we being? The Economic Policy Institute prepared a report showing how we under-pay our children’s teachers.

Almost half of all teachers leave within five years, mainly because they cannot get ahead and care for their own families on the low pay.

The New York Times highlighted one teacher in a March 2, 2011, article. A high school science teacher in her second year of teaching in a city was only earning $36,000 a year and had $26,000 of school debt, no car and no house. She had to move home to keep teaching. Sadly, this is not unusual.

We are also cutting essential programs that help children catch up or keep up, and we are not preparing students for today’s high-tech and very competitive world.

After high school, it is now even tougher to pay for a technical school or college.

The New Hampshire legislature cut funding to the university system a staggering 50 percent. New Hampshire’s 2010 college graduates were in debt an average of $31,048, and the national average debt for the 2010 graduate is $25,250.

It is time to talk to our families, our communities and our legislators about the value and necessity of education.

It is time to defend investments in education because they are investments in our children’s future, our business’ future and our nation’s future. It is time to save our schools.

Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter represented New Hampshire’s First District from 2007-2011, she is seeking a third term in the November, 2012 election. She wrote the proposal for and established a non-profit, social service agency, which continues to serve all ages. She taught politics and history and is a strong supporter of Medicare and Social Security.