By Georgia Earley
Even before the United States had a constitution, its founding fathers were advocates of a public school system. They knew for the common man to rule himself and to resist a government dominated by elites, education must be available to all.
They believed that governments should “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that education makes that consent possible.
Thomas Jefferson said “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”
They also knew that a universal education system was imperative to help unite our country. President George Washington, in his last annual address to Congress, spoke clearly in favor of public schools as essential to the perpetuation of the nation’s common values and for … the greater … prospect of permanent Union.”
But to accomplish this meant shifting the responsibility of education from the individual to the government. This was not an easy transition, since at the time each colony had its own predominant religion and cultural practices, and education was almost entirely private and religion based.
John Adams said that the education of “every rank and class of people, down to the lowest and the poorest” had “to be the care of the public” and “maintained at the public expense.”
So, each state was to include in their constitution a requirement to provide public schools as a duty that the government owed to its citizens.
The challenge was to do this in a way that achieved two main goals: to educate children equally regardless of ethnicity, race or economic class, and to unite culturally disparate and politically polarized communities.
It’s important to remember that the colonists had just been through a horrific war in which an estimated 20-percent or more who fought had died and, of those who survived, many had lost everything. And not everyone had supported the war.
About 30-percent of American immigrants fought for the British and 30-percent were neutral. Even prior to the Revolutionary War, discrimination had been taking hold within the colonies based on differing cultural and religious ideologies. So in the wake of the war, the colonies were deeply in debt and politically, religiously and culturally fragmented.
So the leaders had a daunting challenge to figure out how to pay war debts while unifying the colonies so they could maintain their freedom from authoritative leaders. And they succeeded in unifying them by committing to common ideals, which included equality and nondiscrimination, and by establishing institutions supporting those ideals, like public schools.
They enshrined those ideals and institutions in our constitution, its amendments and in state ordinances for all perpetuity, of which we are the beneficiaries today.
For centuries public schools have been our nation’s heart, especially of our rural communities.
They not only educate our children academically, but they bring people of all faiths, ethnicities, and economic classes together. This promotes community unity and understanding of each other, and provides an opportunity to help our kids learn to navigate a diverse world while still under parental guidance.
Idaho has for decades had the lowest public school funding per student of all the states in our nation. So it’s understandable that parents might advocate for an alternative, especially if they come from another state.
It’s a travesty that, to win favor at the ballot box, Idaho leaders would choose to keep taxes low at the expense of our children. And by failing to adequately fund public schools, Idaho leaders have set the stage to go back in time to privatizing education.
John Adams said “it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the … public schools.” He said its importance requires that “no expense … would be too extravagant.”
Perhaps our Idaho leaders need a lesson in history, a reminder that those courageous and wise men of the 18th century had prioritized the creation of our public school institution for both the betterment of individuals AND for the unity of our Democratic Republic.
So through the eyes of our founding fathers, to continue to allocate the least funds of any state in the U.S. to its public schools, Idaho leaders’ have failed, not only in their responsibility to our children and our communities, but to our nation.
Winston Churchill said “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” And so it seems we are.