“FREE College”? Maybe not.

Twelve years of minimum schooling is now inadequate.

Our society and democracy itself have always been predicated upon a need for an informed population with critical thinking skills. That, we have always known, requires education. Our society has always provided a baseline of education for the purpose of having competent citizens. Schools were provided in the original colonies in the 1600s, with the first taxpayer-funded FREE school established in Massachusetts in 1639 and soon basic education of citizens became compulsory in New England. Ironically, it was the Protestant Reformation that believed in the importance of education (and, eventually, the Catholic Jesuits), in stark contrast to today’s “American Christians” who overwhelmingly distrust education and consider it a threat to their religious beliefs.

Our new free democratic nation, said Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, needed an educational system to prepare citizens for democracy. Jefferson promoted using tax dollars to fund public education.

He was ignored.

What we have learned, of course, is that it is difficult to maintain a democracy. They take work and rely on the ongoing effort of honorable politicians and competent citizens. Public schools are critical to the stability and vitality of a democracy, whose citizens serve as active, informed voters, deciding via critical thinking those issues that pertain to the common good, their rights, and the freedoms of all citizens.

“As democracy took root in early America, public education became not just an ideal, but an imperative. An enlightened public, the founders believed, was essential to self-government.” ~ “Why Education is Essential to Our Democracy“, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D CO

In the context of the early era, we realize that there was tremendous prejudice against anyone who was not of a wealthy Northern European white protestant landowner family.

The first public schools supported by general taxes were established after the Civil War. These were primarily 8 year schools, thought to be sufficient for the day. In 1867, the federal Department of Education was established to help states establish public school systems, and in the late 1800s, all states had taxpayer-supported public elementary schools.

After the turn of the past century, 1900, high schools were often added, extending the schooling to 12 years. Thirty-four states established compulsory education; by 1918, every state established compulsory education. The motivation at the grass-roots level was the belief that democracy required disciplined, judicious, and educated citizens capable of critical thinking. Public education would bridge social gaps, overcome poverty, and create a more equal society overall.

By mid-century 1900s, 50% of American students had a high school diploma. As the century moved on, educators embraced the idea that not only should students gain knowledge, but they should also learn how to live to their fullest potential in a democracy.

We need to now recognize and grasp that our century-old concept of 12 years of schooling is insufficient as a baseline for the minimum education required to function in our society. Educators know that 21st Century Skills are required for student success in society, the workplace, business, academics, and government. Our new world requires critical thinking skills for the proper functioning of democracy.

These are the skills absolutely required of citizens in order to defeat demagogues, racists, the lunatic fringe, and tyrants.

Schooling teaches people to interact with others and raises the benefits of civic participation, including voting and organizing. In the battle between democracy and dictatorship, democracy has a wide potential base of support but offers weak incentives to its defenders. Dictatorship provides stronger incentives to a narrower base. As education raises the benefits of civic engagement, it raises participation in support of a broad-based regime (democracy) relative to that in support of a narrow-based regime (dictatorship). This increases the likelihood of successful democratic revolutions against dictatorships, and reduces that of successful anti-democratic coups. ~ “Why does democracy need education?“, Journal of Economic Growth, Edward L. Glaeser – Giacomo A.M. Ponsetto – Andrei Shleifer

The need for education is great, and important for the survival of democracy as well as the well-being of individuals. Instead of looking at “free college” which raises the unrealistic arguments against its expense, we need to see the real issue: we must adjust our century-old public schooling concept and increase it to the new adequacy of 14 years in order to provide for our democracy and the well-being of our citizens.

I suggest we stop lauding “free college” and instead recognize and address the issue of the inadequacy of 12 years of public schooling. Society has changed drastically, even in just this century, and the needs of society now far exceed the adequacy of the minimum 12 years of schooling.

The USA must EXPAND compulsory public education opportunity to 14 years.