Education is the best public investment, especially on this island. It is not just the pupil who benefits. A healthy society depends on everyone to have an ability to contribute. No matter whether that contribution is in the simplest tasks or the most complex. Many careers that look simple can be quite overwhelming when you get closer. Ever seen the cab of a garbage truck? There are many controls you would not even recognize let alone understand.
As with many public programs, there are two fundamental questions. Who pays? Who benefits?
I have heard people complain about paying for public school: “I don’t have children, why should I pay to educate someone else’s kids?” Silly argument. They went to school a generation ago, probably at someone else’s expense and don’t have to pay until now.
The real issue is, again, the public benefit of keeping children in school so they can contribute and learn how to be good citizens. We all pay so that we can all benefit, but it’s not on a quid pro quo basis. The Gates Foundation calculated that a dollar spent on pre-K education returns $45 to the community. The payback is not unlike public roads that we support through taxes and let everyone use.
Before the Civil War, it was illegal to teach a slave to read and write. The slaves were thought of as livestock. The slave owners didn’t want them to be able to communicate, but they did anyway. How much education did you need to pick cotton or plow? After the Civil War in the South, there was private education for the well-to-do, and no education for the ex-slaves, or for poor whites. Much of the world operated on that mentality before the industrial revolution, but later, careers became more complicated.
Everyone benefits now from having neighbors who are better educated. A country needs workers and soldiers that can read an instruction manual. Farmers that understand the best science. Scientists who can understand things that make the rest of our heads spin. Engineers that see the application of that science to make better public works and personal products. Doctors and nurses and technicians that can apply scientific knowledge to our health and well-being. Accountants that can show us the true cost of projects, and even lawyers to settle disputes. How many creative geniuses have been lost to mundane games or child labor instead of an education to inspire them?
Just as we share the air, we all benefit when the air is clean and we don’t have to buy it. We all pay collectively in ways that are almost impossible to apportion so that we can all benefit from breathable air. Garbage and trash are hauled away and disposed of. Fuels are refined to minimize the pollution they may cause. Utilities provide us with safe clean energy instead of cutting wood or collecting dung. We pay taxes to build public roads for all to use. These things are made possible in part by the education bestowed on previous generations of kids. Many went to public schools, many went to parochial schools, and many public schools were hard to distinguish from parochial schools.
They were public in name, but often parochial in curriculum. In my “public” school, we had to read from the Bible, King James, that is, recite the Lord’s Prayer — Protestant, not Catholic version — and were taught lots of Christmas carols regardless of our family’s faith. Most Catholics went to Catholic parochial school, at their family’s expense, but church-subsidized.
If the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court is any indicator, the Catholic parochial education was not deficient. Seven out of nine justices are Catholic. Some people object to subsidizing parochial education. I confess to having mixed feelings. While I understand the reluctance to fund someone else’s church, I want every child to have the best education they can absorb.
There is a similar controversy over private education. Hopefully we can agree on a national standard. We deserve a generation of properly educated young people.
I decided to make my new book, “The War On The Poor,” available for free at https://www.waronthepoor.org/. Some things are too important to not share.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com.