Public Education and the Crisis of American Liberty

Thomas Jefferson believed that “if a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”  Public education is vitally important to our nation and our liberty. And yet, in 1981, a national commission reported that “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war.” In the decades since that report, we see dismal test results, impoverished civic education, a baleful focus on mere vocational training, and a polarized approach to moral education in the classroom, all at colossal expense to the taxpayer.  This talk will explain how we got into this mess, and it will indicate how we might recover.

Luigi Bradizza, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in politics from the University of Dallas. He is a professor of political science and the chair of the department of political science and international relations at Salve Regina University. He has published several scholarly articles and book chapters on American political thought and political philosophy. He is the author of “Richard T. Ely’s Critique of Capitalism.”