I was just listening to the Commissioner of Education tell a charming story about how a student with special needs was able to find a creative way to allow him to participate in a welding class at his local school. Like many of the stories he tells, it was heart-warming.
Related: Four Ways to Spend Money on Education
But whenever I hear one of those stories, I can’t help but be reminded of the court’s mandate regarding public education: the state is required to provide each educable child with an opportunity to acquire the knowledge and learning necessary to participate intelligently in the American political, economic, and social systems of a free government.
Is knowing how to weld necessary to participate intelligently in the American political system of a free government? No.
The economic system? No.
The social system? Again, no.
So why are taxpayers paying for this? When did ‘necessary’ become a synonym for ‘helpful’ or ‘desirable’?
It’s difficult to overstate how different our public schools would be — how much more effective, and how much less expensive — if we actually paid attention to the words educable, opportunity, and necessary, instead of ignoring the first two, and distorting beyond recognition the meaning of the third.
