Education in the US has been corrupted by capitalism. Public education is one victim of this corruption. Quality education is no longer an American civil right. The result is obvious and disastrous. Poverty, violence and crime are the inevitable net effects.
A person who wishes to practice any form of self improvement must be invested in personal education. However, American society is being steered away from valuable educational experiences by corporate interests who wish to capitalize on the dearth of easily accessible public (free) education. Education is being marketed as a commodity, not a process of growth and enlightenment with value of its own.
Professional education has led the way. Endless certifications and specialities have evolved in all forms of human service, education and public service. Initially, the concept of continuing education developed as a method to protect the consumer and taxpayer from inadequately prepared service providers. It has morphed into a bureaucratic industry which exists for its own sake and its own profits and endowments.
I would challenge anyone who would claim that professional services, public services and human services have actually improved as a result of this certification industry's growth and domination of workplaces. The deterioration in public services, human services and public education should be obvious to anyone with an IQ over 100, who can read.
Education for profit is evolving into bad, overpriced or inaccessibly priced education for everyone at a time when easy access to information is at a peak, thanks to the computer. The government has bought into this process hook, line and sinker. The neoconservative and libertarian cheapskates. who do not want to pay taxes for anything but killing people in other countries in the name of Freedom, have succeeded to keep the poor down and the middle class treading the treadmill of re-education and constant new re-certification, geared to salary grades, not knowledge or human understanding.
A nation based on true meritocracy would have free public education for all who qualify throughout the educational spectrum from kindergarten through doctorate.
