.The surest way to control the narrative, to ensure that the few can control the thoughts and choices of the many through clever slogans and sound bites, is to endeavor to keep the many ignorant. An uneducated society is the biggest threat to our democracy. The founding fathers understood this as Thomas Jefferson stated:
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Public education has been under attack by some for many years now. Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration’s initial education budget would strip $10.6 billion from federal initiatives. Many of the cuts would disproportionately impact poorer school districts. Something the founding fathers would be dismayed at. John Jay was quoted as saying:
“ I consider knowledge to be the soul of a republic, and as the weak and wicked are generally in alliance, as much care should be taken to diminish the number of the former as of that latter. Education is the way to do this, and nothing should be left undone to afford all ranks of people that means of obtaining a proper degree of it at a cheap and easy rate.”
And John Adams wrote:
“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one-mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”
Turning a blind eye to the dismantling of public education is to, in essence, relinquish our democracy over to the few who will continue to deceive the masses to maintain their wealth and power.