When you go to vote this November, think about what kind of country you want to live in. Never in American history has the expression “knowledge is power” been so true.

Democracy depends on informed voters. Informedness depends not only on interests and broad reading skills, but also on the development of critical thinking, which is typically honed in higher education. This is a problem in America. By one estimate, 54% of her Americans read at her sixth grade level or below. In another example, America’s literacy rate ranks her 125th in the world.

For a country wielding resources like the United States has, these statistics are the grade of failure. They also reveal something darker about the America we live in today. Our politician thinks nothing of spending her $22.4 billion on a Zumwalt-class ship now considered a failure and decommissioned, but holds the reins in investing money in education. I’m here.

Teachers are important to democracy. We must respect and pay teachers wages commensurate with the severity of their position. By not creating conditions that make people want to go into teaching, we are not protecting America from the ignorance that fosters extremism. It’s also stupid from a business point of view. According to Forbes analysis, illiteracy could cost America as much as $2.2 trillion a year.

So why does the current Republican Party seem to view teachers as cultural enemies and involved in subverting children?

Remember, teachers are the people we entrust our children with every day. As Paul Waldman of The Washington Post recently wrote, “Fox News, on the other hand, is in tears, denouncing school teachers as lazy, stupid, anti-white Marxists, and accusing children of sexual abuse.” I’m trying to “handle” it.

Coming from a family of several teachers, I can attest that they were early arriving people. Stayed late. Pay for supplies out of your own pocket as needed. Then I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about how to creatively convey an unbiased, fact-based presentation of the subject matter to my students.

The answer to your question is simple. First, the Donald Trump-dominated Republican Party has no policies that benefit middle- and low-income Americans. It focuses on preserving wealth and power instead of helping working Americans. The bipartisan Congressional Research Service wrote of Trump’s signed tax cuts and jobs bill: Nor did they bring the cuts to the average taxpayer. ”

Lacking a plan to make America a better place to live for the majority, the Republican Party portrays America as in decline and blames its decline on its nemesis, the teacher. why? Because it teaches children how to read and think. And that’s not a good thing for Republicans.

Second, the higher the standard of elementary and high school education, the more likely you are to go on to college. And that’s where things really fall apart for the Republican Party. In college, middle- and low-income students can meet a wider variety of people with whom they get along and exchange ideas.

In fact, the only way the Republicans can win is by dividing America through extreme policies such as enforcing anti-abortion laws, banning books, and attacking teachers. The majority of Americans disagree with their policy. According to The Guardian, “The Republican Party has become dramatically less liberal over the past two decades and now resembles the ruling party of a dictatorial society more than the European centre-right parties of previous years.” Became.

Fascists cannot stand the light of truth. Their policies collapse when exposed to science and fact. And we should never accept anything other than fact-and-reason-based policies. As Aldous Huxley said, “The deepest sin against the human heart is to believe things without evidence.”

” Previous

Related article