The Land of Opportunity

            I know you have observed that almost all immigration for the United States involves people coming to the U. S. versus leaving us. The vast majority of workers in the world that are allowed to see the opportunities available in America want to take advantage of those possibilities. The reason for these opportunities is the basis that the United States was founded on: Individual Liberty, Freedom of Choice and the Opportunity for All to Succeed. As you can tell that is a recurring theme of my belief in America. Recently, I believe the Federal government has moved away from those principles.

            We need to go back to the founding of the country to establish the purpose of our Federal Government. It is to defend the country and provide equal opportunity to all citizens. There is much more detail provided but they always come back to those principles. While we initially failed to recognize the rights of people of color, females and numerous other minorities, we still use the guiding principle of equal opportunity for all. I’ll leave the discussion for minority rights for another discussion.

            It is my belief that the best way to provide equal opportunity is through education. Many decry our education system, yet from my observation there is a tremendous input of the best students from other countries attending college here and very few Americans moving overseas for four years of college. We do need to improve our secondary education in many areas but we do have excellent public schools in areas throughout the country. My children have attended secondary education and college in the public arena and all three are very successful in their fields. My desire is to return education policy and funding to the local level; at least the state if not county level. As I’ve learned throughout the years, it’s best to solve the problem by being closest to it. The Department of Education’s main purpose is to collect revenue from taxpayers and redistribute it back to the states as they see fit. While the Federal Authorities believe they know best, I believe the State, County and individual schools know what they need to do best. Let them have the reins and run with it. Hold them accountable and reward success.

            This is really more of a chicken and the egg issue: improve the school and parents get involved or parents get involved and the school improves. We have many superb educators who want to improve the system. Let’s get out of their way and let them provide the equal opportunity to all.