We Need An Education President, Part 1: Equitable Education and the $#%&^! Debt Ceiling

 A "debt ceiling" is exactly that: payments of PAST DEBT. During the four years of the Trump administration, the Republicans increased our national deficit by $7.8 TRILLION dollars. Now they don't want to raise the debt ceiling in order to pay for the debt they created. This has occurred with every Republican administration since Reagan, for 40 years, because you can't cut taxes and increase military spending. That's called "voodoo economics."

Yet people continue to vote for Republican policy that just doesn't make sense, in large part because we have a severe education/class gap in this country and, as many of our predecessors knew, excellent education is the foundation of a thriving democracy. We currently have neither.

We have unfortunately allowed an "excellent education" to be defined by attending college, and then not providing sufficient government support to do so -- thus the education/class gap.

But the truth is an "excellent education" doesn't require college. It does, however, require strong high school education in the foundations of citizenship: critical thinking, media literacy, history, civics, a passion for lifelong learning, creative and practical problem solving -- all of which can and should be taught in high schools.

Yet because we've allowed public education to be dictated by property taxes, we've created a class gap here as well, with students from wealthier districts graduating with more proficiencies than those from poorer districts and, in general, high schools forfeiting their educational mandate to colleges.

We need an education President and educational leadership. Education is the #1 requirement for strong economies, communities, and nations and to end disinformation campaigns and decrease partisanship.

The U.S. legacy is one of militancy: we spend 3.3% of our GDP, more than the total of the 11 next countries including China, Germany, Russia, Great Britain and South Korea, on our military.

It is past time to shift some of this money to where it will make a real difference to our national strength: to teachers, curricula, and equitable primary, secondary, and higher education options for all.