• The Great Void In Education

Watching teachers lead young children by the hand to demonstrate on the streets of Wisconsin, educating them on the finer art of union bargaining methodology, it becomes abundantly clear that great voids exist in the educational continuum. The void becomes even more obvious when the Oval office, and possibly the Democratic Party, meddle with the State leadership by championing Union actions such as shutting down schools.

As we set out on our paths through life, we come to recognize that students graduating from High School, University or College, are lacking some necessary tools and percepts critical to all endeavors, personal or business, which academia could have provided. Union tactics are not among them.

Evidently, too many voters during the last Presidential elections forgot that a community organizer gains power and influence by making chimerical promises to susceptible listeners. He assures them that government controlled economic activity will lead to redistribution of wealth, . . . “You’re being oppressed so that you can’t get what’s yours, . . . I’ll get it for you through government.”

The community organizer Does Not imbue the community with personal motivation, or any sense of individual purpose. The Community organizer is incapable of distinguishing the difference between controlling the game and its players, from the enforcement of laws that shape how honestly the game is played, particularly by its biggest players. He also confuses Wall Street and Banking, with the business and corporate sectors of the Nation’s economic engines.

Although we are social beings, our greatest learning and our deepest satisfaction come from within and these are energized through accomplishment. The good and the bad of all our experiences, big and small, are positive as long as they are ours, . . . ours without blame, or deflection, or passing the buck.

Those who would stifle such energy are hypocritical, self-serving charlatans. This type of leadership does not honestly promote challenging of the mind, or invigorating the spirit, or animating innovation, or even hard work, but instead seeks to covertly suppress them.

America holds a unique body of work that rests at its foundation, produced by an exceptional group of men, but it may be less commonly known in its classrooms than the sayings of Confucius. I refer to the ample documentation such as The Federalist Papers, and the letters and speeches provided for future generations by the sages who were principally responsible for the Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America, the Founding Fathers.

I don’t infer that these men were the epitome of wisdom, since they were human after all, nevertheless they were wise enough to create the foundation for an environment the world admires and wishes to emigrate to, 222 years after the first adoption and ratification of its framework.

When John Adams wrote, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom,” he did not mean that the country’s youth should be instructed in ideology. As individual freedom remains a most aspired-to circumstance in any society, the thinking of those who produced its best configuration, should, as has been proposed by many for two centuries, become very common knowledge and should be intrinsically incorporated into the fabric of the educational system.

As teachers march out of the schools of Wisconsin, we are reminded of what has been gravely omitted from their place of work.

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• EDUCATION, NOT REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Like it or not, taxation redistributes wealth. Somewhat. The term socialism has a malodorous aroma, but so too does over-concentration of wealth. The current wealth imbalance between the top 1% of the population and the rest of society creates tangible resentment. It is therefore not surprising that statements from Obama that he will “spread the wealth,” appear to get favorable approval from a majority, if his support polls are to be believed. What is surprising is the lack of analysis in the fourth estate, as to what that really means, and what methodology might deliver on such a promise. Greater taxation on the wealthy few buys votes, but will not make any difference to the vast majority of the population. On the other hand, additional taxes on businesses will.

Those who have depended on others for income, particularly those working for organizations dependent on governments or foundations for income, have difficulty empathizing with entrepreneurs whose lives are engrossed in building successful businesses. There is also absolutely no chance that they will feel any affinity or sympathy for those at the top of financial food chain. Being responsible for covering and issuing a payroll presents its own unique lessons.

When abuse of benefits and power in the corporate executive office seems rampant, the public perceptions become further skewed toward supporting higher taxes for the rich trough progressive taxation. It can be argued that the rich can and should bear a greater percentage of the burden, although the impact on the nation’s majority would be minimal. The picture changes when the increase in taxes spreads to businesses, and impacts the day-to-day reality for business owners and employees.

Most businesses in America are small and medium companies, employing one to a hundred or so employees. They are the economic engines that keep the economy thriving. Imposing further burden on businesses, and penalizing them for government excesses, mismanagement and debt, would deepen the current recession. It would also stretch the process of recovery into a multi-year reminder that accumulating debt and possessions is no way to manage personal affairs or run a government. Deal with abuse at the top of the corporate ladder through other means, not taxes.

“Redistribution of wealth” should be re-defined to intend and encompass the distribution of knowledge through education. Allowing the educational system to disintegrate and inadvertently limiting its access, as we have witnessed through the past generation, restrains the majority from achieving educational objectives, and smothers most personal and financial aspirations. Ensuring that all who want to be educated actually receive the education to the full extent of their capabilities will enrich the country. Education should take precedence over other government programs currently siphoning hundreds of billions but not serving to ensure a healthy future for the country.

As for the next administration cutting anyone’s taxes, the staggering debt says that one won’t fly. It won’t fly for McCain or for Obama. Taxpayers can expect more taxation, and they can expect little, if any, reduction in government spending from the next President.

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• EDUCATION – THE DYNAMIC OF SOVEREIGNTY

The CEO of a large American corporation tells his Texan audience he can’t find employees educated enough to fill his ranks so he’s filling the void in India. That sounds very familiar, so … no really big deal. Didn’t you make a call yesterday on warrantee work for that new addition to your widget arsenal? You couldn’t recognize the accent but found out that you were talking to someone in the Philippines. Outsourcing has become commonplace as companies subcontract processes to reduce costs or divert the management of functions requiring competencies it did not hold internally. The current use of the term conjures up the procurement of services from another country, although the rarely used term offshoring provides a more authentic description. Either way, if you’re late on making any payments on that widget you won’t be talking to anyone from the Philippines or India, you’ll be explaining yourself to a individual skilled at making you squirm. Someone much more local.

Alright, so who cares? Everyone should.

North America’s larger corporations have been spreading the wealth. Recently hired employees in Jakarta are making a living, feeding themselves and their families. That’s a good thing. Of course, when you start aggregating manufacturing, design, servicing, telemarketing, market research, and engineering, the train heading out of town has a long tail. The complexities of the repercussions are deep and wide, however, the overwhelming signal the North American community should tune into is the statement this shift is making on education. Whether the corporate heads are rationalizing their decisions, and not really telling us that their plan is to use cheap labor, matters not. The objective is not to reverse the train, but to build new and better ones that remain closer to home. Only educated ingenuity will provide the energy.

The North American reality is that education has taken a back seat to almost every other significant sector requiring nourishment for the maintenance of a stable, free, successfully self sustaining and renewing sovereignty. Statistics in support of higher education abound, yet even the social trend leading State of California made peculiar decisions over the past twenty years to cut back educational funding. From Toronto to Texas, teachers purchase writing tools for their students. From Vancouver to Miami, the college and university doors of entry are shut tight to those who cannot, or will not, incur overwhelming debt to attend. So, no surprises on the current state of affairs. Offshoring we go.

We are each a member of the greater communities we inhabit. Commonalities provide us a belonging that unite us in purpose and in interest. While selfishness is a natural condition, awareness of our participation within the broader context reminds us to take heed. As a community succeeds and endures, so does the individual. Each generation wishes progress and greater success on the next. This can only be achieved if successive generations are more educated. Countries are living organisms whose life processes require amongst other viand, one of the most critical of all, education. Education imparts knowledge and stimulates exploration, leading to discoveries propelling greater achievements. Education can bring more to a country than self renewal, it can ignite a reach beyond the current moral, spiritual, scientific, artistic, cultural, or technological accomplishments and possibilities. Education provides a society with social and economic health, instilling mores and ethical values.

An educated population is a freer population in state of mind and more exigent in it’s social and political expectations. Through the industrial revolution, free public schooling was provided and a century ago high schools were built to meet the requirements of an evolving society.

A half century ago, secondary school education may have satisfactorily enabled a career and social cohesion. Today’s reality demands that all education should be provided to maximum capacity of individuals with conditions stimulating the pursuit with all roadblocks removed. With potentiality of perceptions raised a few degrees the current statistical trends on college and university attendance and graduation will be reversed. Once achieved, the example becomes the standard, flying in the breeze exporting this exhilaration of freedom through communication rather than armed insinuation. Universities and colleges are considerable engines fueling the economy. They should all be straining their capacities and enthusiastically expanding.

A wise American with a propensity for flying kites attached to keys, once wrote, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.” Observing the wisdom, and applying it will quiet the expressions of regret and the excuses for offshoring.

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• STANFORD, A REVOLUTION IN EDUCATION?

Stanford University’s announcement that it would offer free tuition to students coming from families earning less than $100,000 per year is a serious landmark move on the part of one of the world's leading educational institutions. Other institutions should follow suit particularly those with similarly disproportionate endowments from Yale to the University of British Columbia.

Practically all recently graduating North American students are now heading into careers burdened by onerous loans, weighed further by usury level interest rates. Does this make practical sense? We are creating an indentured class of citizens, and its constituents are our kids.

Is there something more important for the future flourishment of a country than the education of its children? Is our society’s future prosperity and place in the world order not dependent on the breadth and depth of their and their childrens’ learning? When did we develop the attitude that education is a privilege and not a right? As tax payers, we should want our children to receive free full education. Where does the book of common sense say that free education should stop at high school?

Whether studying to become a doctor, artist, or carpenter, education should be made equally available to all levels of society. Only through that equality do we have a chance of being a truly equal opportunity society. Broad availability of federally funded education is as significant, if not more so, than availability of medical services.

Many qualified students drop out of higher education pursuits when faced with the enormous challenges of repaying loans that can add up to annual totals of between $50,000 and $80,000. They could not, or would not, accumulate such debt. This is particularly true of students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. We just have not provided an even playing field. The gap is already too wide between rich and poor. Stanford is taking a leap forward, demonstrating leadership and vision. Most critically it is doing its part in affirming very publicly that the dream of opportunity can be a reality.

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