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President Obama began his letter regarding the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act with this very poignant statement: "Every child in America deserves a world-class education."1 Although the Constitution does not directly address the notion of education, the federal government and judiciary have made it clear through legislation and case law that the United States of America values education and that we should care for all of our children. The question is whether only selected children are getting a "world-class education," while others are being deprived of their mental nutrition and tools for success.
Education as opportunity, opportunity as success, success as power
Robert Maynard Hutchins, a prominent lawyer, teacher and educational philosopher has been quoted as saying that "a liberal education... frees a person from the prison-house of his class, race, time, place, background, family, and even his nation."2 Education surely gives a person freedom if from an early age it imbues a child with the ambition to set goals and affords the confidence that success is deserved and goals attainable. School is often the only place where children are able to explore what it is they want to do in their lives and that provides them with the resources and support system to follow through with those goals. For most children, school is the first formal introduction to their own potential and the potential of their future. Regardless of where children are coming from, an education is supposed to give them the tools to choose where they are going. Unfortunately, not all children are given the same tools-and this may ultimately determine their fates.
Much lip service is given to education without a lot of concrete support. As children, we always heard things like "education is power" and "your future is bright" on television and for some of us, in our schools. As adults, we hear politicians make promises about education reform and allotting more funding for public education.
Our founding fathers understood the value of public education in creating a functioning democracy. Thomas Jefferson said, "I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength. (1) That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or...