To the Editor:
We are law abiding. By law we have lost freedom of education.
Every state for the last century has compulsory education laws; children must go to a school that has a state-approved curriculum. For the last half century, student test scores have been falling against international competition.
Education experts and TV personalities like Bill O'Reilly say today's parents are too dumb to raise their children. Jonathan Gruber told the president and others who created the Affordable Care Act that parents are too dumb to know what health insurance to buy.
Our compulsory education system is producing a lot of too dumb.
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For several centuries, the parents in the New World had freedom of education to raise their children. They created the No. 1-educated public in the world, raised the world's standard of living, all while out-producing the rest of the world combined.
Today, we need Constitutional scholars to tell people with K-12 educations what the Constitution says. In 1788, voters, black and white, ratified the Constitution. They knew the Constitution. They read a series of newspaper articles by federalists and anti-federalists debating the Constitution's merits. College students today have difficulty reading those articles which were written for the general public.
Worldwide, people avoid people they don't trust. The Great Society's Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has resulted in the phasing out the teaching of ethics, morality, integrity and the historic importance of those character traits to the growth of the United States.
Did our compulsory education system create Ferguson, Mo., and the decades of decay in every one of the Great Society's Model Cities and the trend toward extinction of rural communities nationwide? If not, why not?
If you like ignorance, you can keep your ignorance by being satisfied with your knowledge and opinions.
Jim Oase
Milbank
