Citing the familiar National Anthem, President Ronald Reagan told Americans celebrating Independence Day in 1982 that the USA was still “the land of the free” over two centuries later. This common claim stirs our emotions and excites our patriotic fervor, but is it true?
As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” Our enslavement is not from foreign nations, rogue terrorists, or multinational corporations—it’s an enslavement of institutionalized ignorance, facilitated by a progressive dumbing down of the rising generation.
Today, only one in four American adults can name all three branches of government or answer a basic math question, even with a calculator. More than a third don’t know the century in which the American Revolution took place. Eighty-three percent of Americans failed a basic test on the American Revolution.
Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “if a nation expects to be ignorant and free … it expects what never was and never will be.” He and his associates were emphatic about the importance of education and having an informed citizenry in order to maintain the new nation as the “land of the free.” Freedom would be only in name if it was not reinforced by historically literate and civically engaged citizens who knew what threatened freedom and how to keep those threats at bay.
A few months after President Reagan repeated his patriotic claim, his administration undermined it through the publication of “A Nation at Risk,” a report from the National Commission on Excellence in Education that had spent 18 months surveying the school system and assessing its quality. They warned, on April 26, 1983, that America’s foundations were being “eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a people.” They continued:
”If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”
Fast forward four decades, and today’s societal challenges—including school curriculum battles, attacks on free speech, skyrocketing inflation, and more—can largely be traced back to the educational mediocrity that has been emanating from government schools for several generations. We all know that those who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them. Now we are reaping the whirlwind after tolerating decades of dumbed down curriculum and declining education standards.
Today’s government schools pump out graduates who are ill-informed about basic civic facts, let alone deeper concepts covering civics, economics, and political philosophy—with just 37 percent of high school seniors even achieving proficiency in reading. Can we expect these new voters to be informed about complicated current events and political situations if they can’t even read well?
This enslavement-by-ignorance isn’t merely theoretical. For example, 49% of Gen Z sees socialism as favorable; children who are largely the product of government schools (a socialist program) have a shockingly low understanding of past socialist systems and why that knowledge should warn us to steer clear.
While government schools and the educational attainment of their students were mediocre in 1983, today’s results are sub-mediocre and should urge parents to seek alternatives that can better support their children and lead towards a more literate and informed society.
If we want to be the “land of the free” in more than name only, we must refuse to tolerate the persistently poor outcomes government schools produce. Our future as a country depends on fixing this foundational problem, and conventional approaches to improvement won’t work. We will not overcome mediocrity through more teacher training, more taxpayer dollars, or more testing and technology.
The solution to the problem won’t come from central planners or school boards. It can only come as the government steps back and unleashes the innovation and ingenuity of individuals. This is why so many states are creating Education Savings Account programs that let parents direct the taxpayer dollars intended to educate their child. A competitive marketplace of education providers—instead of a one-size fits all system—is our best hope at reversing decades of decline.
The situation is more dire than it was four decades ago when Americans were warned about the rising tide of educational mediocrity. Will we heed the warning today in time to save our country?
Connor Boyack is president of the Libertas Institute and the author of 40 books. Corey DeAngelis is senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. They are co-authors of the new book, Mediocrity: 40 Ways Government Schools are Failing Today’s Students.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.