A little goody on the 4th of July weekend:

Politicians who cut education betray both our past and our future.

Great American patriots of all political parties believe that, in the immortal words of John Adams, ‘Laws for the liberal education of youth are so extremely wise and useful that to a human and generous mind, no expense for this purpose should be thought extravagant.’ I believe that the value of investing in education at all levels from preschool to graduate school should be as obvious as saving Yosemite, digging the Panama Canal, building the Golden Gate Bridge, or going to the moon.

In a global economy, America’s stinginess toward its children’s education is a formula for disaster. Instead of educating them, we are larding them up with our debt. That is double disaster for the future of our great country. I believe that Neil Postman was right when he said, ‘Children are the living message we send to a time we will not see.’

– from “Children Are the Living Message We Send to a Time We Will Not See” by Delaine Eastin, in Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America’s Schools edited by Joel Westheimer