The Implications of Federal Education

The U.S. Department of Education was established on May 4, 1980 with its primary objective being to “[assure] access to equal educational opportunity for every individual,” as well as to improve educational quality across America. One of the largest arguments for the creation of a federal department, however, was to coordinate the federal loan programs set forth in LBJ’s “Great Society” program. Johnson proudly signed the Higher Education Act of 1965 into law, proclaiming that the loan programs would “swing open a new door for the young people of America” by making higher education more affordable.

Flash forward several decades from these grand government schemes and these proclamations seem dubious at best. The average cost of attendance at a public university has increased from $950 per year in 1965 to $2,165 in 1980 to $11,034 in 2007 – to say that the federal loan program has failed to make college a more attainable goal for lower-class families would be an understatement. This rising cost spiral has been discussed at length elsewhere, however; the other issues inherent in the federal micromanagement of education are less often mentioned and are perhaps of more importance in our society.

Halloween Night with the State?

Well, not exactly, but you'll get a heavy dosage of ObamaCare propaganda if you go to the new "Saw" film. Apparently we're supposed to root for "Jigsaw," the trashy series' psycho killer, as he kidnaps and murders nonviolent people with bad social habits, as well "turning the tables" on as a health insurance agent.

The latter, as the moral busybody Jigsaw repeatedly notes, is only getting his commeuppance for being an evil capitalist. That is, the old socialist mantra that withholding money or time for oneself, rather than others, is morally equivalent to aggressing against someone else.

But while the filmmakers expectation that we "root" for Jigsaw is rather odd, it seems no more ridiculous to me than to "support the troops."

(Thanks to Anthony Gregory)

"Come, all you little children -- SING to please your God-King!"

That is, sing for the health care proposals of President Obama, the God-head of the sanctified state....

Doesn't the fact that teachers inundate schoolchildren with this sort of propaganda, who in turn shriek it at us through the MSM, call into question the notion that this is a "free" society?  But good for Willy, who makes a plug for the free market at the beginning.

Thanks to LRC for the link.