As someone who has hugely benefited from public education offered by the US--and as someone who has also witnessed its erosion since Reagan's regime--it's infinitely depressing to see the state of things today in California. That state, where I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees (a short stint at Columbia U. for an MFA doesn't count much) used to be considered around the world as offering the best public higher education, with UC Berkeley being the crown. It was also the most democratic: In the early 70s, the expectation as that *everyone* was not just entitled but also able to pursue a post-secondary degree.
The result was, I daresay, extraordinary wealth--social, economic, cultural, you name it. Silicon Valley is just one brilliant instance of the magnetic effect California's education policies had. Nationally, policies that promoted education first and foremost and made that education effectively free (and free from binding social constraints that hobbled so many others around the world) made the US system the best the world has ever known.
Yet all that, all that wealth, potential and actual, is at risk. Public education takes money; it takes political prioritization, it takes commitment to a notion of intellectual freedom that is essential. It--the intellectual freedom, the money, the commitment--must be disinterested, that is beholden to no agenda, ideological or otherwise. And it must be free. And whether this free-ness is granted by the state via subsidies (as it was in my case: scholarships), or in some other ways, it must be always an option all who pay taxes can consider.
Perhaps not so oddly, open source plays a role here. Or should. And increasingly, if I and others succeed in our efforts, will.
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