Education: The Issue of 2012

By Nick Manfredi

About a week ago in the final Republican Debate in Arizona, Rick Santorum said that "we need to cut and eliminate… education funding from the federal government, move it back to the local level where it belongs where parents and local communities can deal with that."

Yes, the new Republican front-runner, newly named by Politico and other sources "the biggest threat to Obama," called for the elimination of education funding from the government.

This is frightening. It sounds to me like Santorum is giving up when he says we should put education in the hands of "parents and local communities" letting them "deal with that."

Where are you from? Where have you been? Is this a serious assertion? Granted, President Obama hasn't done wonders or wowed me in the realm of education.

I agree with the Republican candidate in one way: something needs to happen regarding education in this country.

Growing up in Las Vegas, I too often saw kids my age, without drive and aspiration. Why?

Maybe the ultimate goal of education should be something new. Maybe it should be something besides the promise of a nine to five. Maybe it should be the possibility of, the invitation to creativity. Maybe that would motivate kids to sit in classrooms for the best 12 years of their lives.

Why? Because kids will take a chance. Children have the capacity to make mistakes without fear. The U.S. is the birthplace of creativity, of the ingenuity of minds such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Jim Henson and Gene Roddenberry, and Erik Ehn - and if you don't know who that is you should look him up.

In return, we must take a chance on children. We cannot "move" education anywhere or to anyone else. We must implement programs that do not senselessly pump tax payer dollars into a flawed system, but redefine the system and rehabilitate education in this country.

Why can't we take the federal powers that be, powers of generation and far-reaching scope, and use them to facilitate programs at the local levels where Santorum believes they should reside? It is for all of us to monitor, govern and truly perfect.

Education — the untouched, ugly issue that is plaguing our country and its politics — can, and should, not be compromised on.

Nick Manfredi is a sophomore political science and theater major.