Less than 100 years ago, the political, banking, and "investment" communities, with the aid of many American "investors" wrapped in self-interest, abused and messed up the American economy, causing the infamous Great Depression that took its toll upon our parents and our grandparents.

Today, these same groups have done it again. The current depressed economy threatens to sink the republic into another Great Depression, and is already playing havoc with the lives of working families, and it looks as if doom and gloom is going to hang around long enough to take its toll upon their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Today, there are untold numbers of Americans unemployed, homeless, and economically helpless. Today, the federal government, state governments, and hundreds of cities and towns are deeply in debt, treasuries empty and bankrupt. The federal government owes trillions of dollars to foreign lenders: individuals, groups, and countries. What will our political representatives do when lenders call in the money due them? What national possessions will they sell to reduce the debt?

I can safely say that among the first possessions our corrupt political representatives will sell to get out of debt—because they're doing it now—is the American childrens' birthright to an essential education; their opportunity to learn how to think on the high-level and solve the problems inherent to living in a collective society; their opportunity to receive proper preparation for the expected challenges of today, and the unexpected of tomorrow, and their opportunity to know who their real enemies are, as opposed to "claimed" enemies.

In Clark County, Nevada, a state which has long ranked near the bottom of every survey comparing the quality of public education in the 50 states, the Republican governor has drastically slashed an already under-funded public education budget to help meet the projected reduced revenues for the next few years.

The expected consequences of the governor's uncaring decision can be only the closing of some schools, more students per classroom, more student dropouts, and reduced pay for teachers-many of whom are already underpaid. This, in turn, can result only in fewer qualified teachers seeking jobs in Clark County, and a further deterioration of the situation.

The sad fact is that for most of humanity's time upon planet Earth, only the children of wealthy parents received formal "education", whether by private tutor or private school. Each method required a fee from parents that poorer parents couldn't afford. So commoner children rarely received an education. After thousands of years, the lack of a formal education for poor children was embedded so deeply in western culture that poor children didn't expect to an education.

There is public education in the U.S. only because working-class parents demanded it. It wasn't easy to get, for both rich Americans and organized religions resisted the concept of public schools.

Leopards cannot change their spots, and these two powerful forces still actively work today behind the scenes to subvert quality public education. Today, it is claimed public education is getting more dollars per student than ever before, but turning out an "inferior product." The claim is valid: public education is—and has always been—inferior to private and religious schools, a fact some Americans believe is by deliberate design.

At the time of its creation, in the early 20th century, "public" education was to have been, a service financed by the general public to assure that children of working-class parents possessed enough education to fit into an educated American society. More or less, the intention was to prepare commoner children with the knowledge and skills to be capable corporate employees, and to be comfortable in their subordinate social status.

It's not surprising, then, to find that after WWII public colleges and universities-the schools of "higher" education that once-upon-a-time offered students a liberal education-have slowly been transformed into utilitarian vocational schools that prepare students to be capable corporate employees.

A traditional liberal education is one that develops the capabilities of the brain, gives the student a perspective of human experiences, nourishes the growth of wisdom by revealing why things are as they are and, perhaps, prompts students to think about how things may be made better.

Each of the fifty states holds responsibility for its own public education system, which is why commoner children throughout the republic receive such unequal educations. What's needed today in the U.S. republic is a unified public school system with an agenda headed by one responsible agency. What's needed is a uniform public curriculum that includes exposure to current knowledge in the sciences, technologies, and the problems each creates. What's needed is public discourse enabling parents to suggest information they believe children should learn before they are thrust into the responsibilities of safely guiding their democracy through the minefields of human folly and greed.