We Must Invest in Public Schools, Not Dismantle Them

Last week’s issue talked about investments. I made the claim that when we invest in services that benefit the greatest number of Americans, our country becomes a place where we can all achieve economic success. I stand by that. As a country, one of our biggest investments should be in educating our children. Public Education is the greatest equalizer of our time. I am its champion. I believe there are many ways to define success in life, and we should invest in providing every American with the means to pursue their version of the American Dream. This means investing in public schools, trade schools, professional certification programs, and building pathways to success in this country. I believe that understanding basic finance, managerial skills, communication skills, and technology skills are fundamental building blocks for success. Not everyone needs to earn a four-year degree, but we should provide the tools and skills necessary to compete in a modern economy. 

I envision a future for my children and my grandchildren in which the United States treats education as an investment, not an expense. As a country, we benefit from educating our children and producing capable citizens. Public schools are a net benefit to our country and will produce untold economic benefits over generations, and we have a moral imperative to prioritize the education of America’s children.

In the words of Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, “What were we ranked?” According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the United States is ranked 34th in the world in education. I include this because one issue facing the United States is that we tend to evaluate our educational rankings and outcomes only against other states, while we slip in global rankings. The United States must lead the world in educational outcomes. Then it will not matter whether your state is ranked 1st or 50th in education, because every child in the U.S. will receive a world-class education. We have a long way to go to achieve this goal.

Investing in educational outcomes requires investing in curriculum, investing in methodology, investing in services that enrich the learning experience, such as speech language pathologists and teachers’ aides, investing in the schools and learning environments, investing in feeding America’s children, and investing in both paying our teachers more and helping them achieve higher-level certifications and degrees. Let us analyze each of these concepts.

The curriculum that we use to teach our children is paramount. Standardized curricula and standardized testing are not necessarily the best tools for teaching and measuring outcomes. Instead, let children across the country learn similar concepts and approaches to problems and math. It is a simple truth that life in rural Oklahoma differs from life in New York City, which differs from life in Honolulu. The concepts we learn should be influenced by these realities. A school in New York City might invest in programs that teach children safe ways to cross the street, while a school in Honolulu may invest in programs that teach children about riptides and how to enjoy the ocean safely. This makes sense, but these different schools, in different places, can certainly teach the same concepts in mathematics, science, and social studies to ensure students from across the nation have similar baseline understandings of the world because the end goal should be that a student should be able to move across the country, or even to a neighboring state, without a major disruption to their learning of core educational subjects.

Beyond the subjects our children learn, we must invest in the teaching methods we use to educate them. For example, for elementary schools, let’s get the laptops, tablets, and screens out of the classrooms! It may be true that young children are more compliant with a screen, but schools are about education and teaching children, not babysitting them. We must reduce student/teacher ratios and increase time for children to learn by being children. By playing with other students, enjoying art, running around the playground, and learning how to interact with the world and people around them. As they grow older, we certainly must embrace technology and the modern world. This looks like a computer class, a robotics team, or encouraging high schoolers to use laptops outside the classroom for assignments, projects, studying, and college courses. 

In addition to how we teach our children, the environment we create is just as important because education is more than just teaching—it is the entire environment that we use. School districts often invest funds in creating appropriate learning environments for early childhood centers and kindergartens. They come with colorful walls and floors, are covered in art, and feel like fun places to be. As children get older and move on to middle and high school, they encounter lifeless schools. Schools at all levels should be spaces students want to be in because, for some, they're a home away from home and, for many, a safe space. Therefore, investing in buildings and classrooms to create appropriate learning environments should not stop at the beginning of a student's educational journey. 

Overall, none of this matters if our children are not fed. Hungry children cannot learn. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 18.4% of all U.S. households with children are food insecure. This means that nearly 1 in 5 children live in a home that is food insecure, and yet we force these children to attend school. While I certainly agree that all children must be educated, I also believe that we must feed the children if we are going to mandate that they attend school every day. It would only cost an estimated $25 billion per year to provide free lunch and breakfast to every school-age child attending a public school in the United States. That is an investment worth making! Let us feed the children, improve their ability to learn, and stop punishing children when parents are unable to pay for school lunch debt.

To conclude, the future of our country depends on our willingness to treat public education as a moral imperative and an investment because dismantling education doesn’t fix our problems; it just guarantees them. So, instead of watching the decay of the very system that will produce capable citizens who will reshape our nation, we must build a world-class system that benefits all children, and while we're at it, let’s send someone to Washington who understands what it will mean for the country when we invest in the people and programs that will bring untold economic benefits for generations to come.

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International Comparisons of Achievement, National Center for Education Statistics (2022), https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1. 

Food Insecurity in the U.S. – Key Statistics and Graphs, United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (2026), https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.