Spellings Praises House Commitment to Education, Competitiveness

When Margaret Spellings told Congress, " To be a global economic leader, America must remain an educational leader," she served to emphasize all that I have been ranting about for the past few days Spellings Praises House Commitment to Education, Competitiveness. When Spellings makes the explicit connection between economics and education she diminishes the underlying reason for educating children, to develop people who think critically in order to preserve and defend democratic principles. One of the things President Bush gets right is that democracies tend to prosper while totalitarian states tend not to do so. So, one might argue that prosperity is an intended consequence of democracy. If this is the case, then it is unwise to think that one educates for economic gain and leadership. If one truly wants to maintain a position of economic leadership in the world, then, it stands to reason that one would be concerned about educating young people how and when to defend democracy. The price of liberty is not cheap but if one loses the incentive for liberty then liberty will not prosper. Margaret Spellings must know that.