It's Education, Stupid

We pay all the time, in many ways, for our lack of a decent K-12 system of education in the United States. This is true in the full meaning of the latter federal entity, meaning all of the states in the nation, including Minnesota. We would do well to adapt an expression from the 1992 Clinton campaign and remind ourselves that while in electoral politics, "It's the economy, stupid," on a broader and even more important societal scale, "It's education, stupid."

When another young life is taken at 22nd and Dupont in North Minneapolis, "It's education, stupid." Almost certainly all of the young people involved have been poorly educated, have poor life prospects, may not really believe that they will live beyond the age of 21, and are adrift in wasted lives for lack of knowledge of the sort that can be applied productively in the world. "It's education, stupid."

When politicians cannot agree on a deficit and debt ceiling deal, even of the inconclusive sort, until the final hours before the deadline, "It's education, stupid." Too many of the politicians themselves never had much of an education in economics, so those on the left are beholden to Paul Kruger for their information, those of the Tea Party are beholden to right wing commentators and unexamined popular notions, and more old-line Republicans fall back on assumptions that have been expounded by the Wall Street Journal and won them favor with corporate political backers. In the public at large, there is considerable confusion over the distinction between deficit and debt, the difference between familial and governmental economics, the exact role of executive versus legislative branches in budgetary decision-making, the exact function of the Federal Reserve as an entity and as an actor for facililatating economic policy, or the exact roles of the Treasury Department versus the President's Council of Economic Advisers. So legislation is crafted in considerable ignorance and evaluated by the public and the electorate in woeful ignorance. "It's education, stupid."

When No Child Left Behind legislation gets to the point at which it is functioning magnificently, putting the uncomfortable spotlight on schools that have failed many students for decades, ill-educated journalists of no significant analytical and research capacity have little that they can do aside from repeating the unexamined shibboleths of the education establishment. And so we have another need to be reminded, "It's education, stupid." We hear and see repeated, as if mantras, empty-headed phrases such as "teaching to the test," "narrowing the curriculum," "unfairly punishing schools," and other such nonsense. Ill-educated and non-analytical journalists become dependent on the very people who have ill-served our students for so long. "It's education, stupid."

If we had even a good system of K-12 education in the United States and in the state of Minnesota, we would have fewer inner city young people living wasted lives, politicians and a body politic with some genuine understanding of basic economic principles and institutions, and journalists capable of being something other than the mouthpiece of vested interests. But we do not have a thoroughgoing sense of the importance of a well-balanced liberal arts education in the United States; we wander on forever claiming that we want an "excellent education" for our children without ever getting around to defining an "excellent education," much less constructing the kinds of institutions that would be capable of actually delivering high quality education. So in these and many other realms we suffer from a lack of knowledge and a paucity of clear thinking on matters relevant to the paramount issue of our time.

Because, to be sure, in the broad societal realm we suffer every day, in so many ways, for failing to understand that "It's education, stupid."