Over the weekend, Jerome posted a diary about The American Compact. The American Compact is a set of ten action items a new Congress can take, and therefore can serve as the backbone for nationalizing the 2006 Congressional races.

I'd like to take this discussion to the next steps.

1. Talk about each of the action items in the Compact.
2. Discuss other action items which might be included.
3. Prioritize the final list.

Point 1 - Education preK to post12

Free public education pre-K through post-12, reflecting that a high school diploma alone is no longer the "ticket" to the middle class

"A system of general instruction, which shall reach every description of our citizens from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so will it be the latest of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself to take an interest."
--Thomas Jefferson 1818.

"The tax which will be paid for [the] purpose [of education] is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."
--Thomas Jefferson 1786.

Free public education is as much a foundation of this nation as the Constitution. Every time we have expanded educational opportunities, the nation has benefited, from early public schools, to land grant colleges, to the GI Bill after World War II. In general, free public education is available throughout the United States from Kindergarten through High School, a standard that goes back to the early part of the last century. At the time, a high school education granted people entry to the middle class. That is no longer true, and free, public education K-12 is no longer enough.

Just when a college degree, or at least some postsecondary education, has become that passport to the future, policies and practice have made college degrees more difficult to get. State colleges and universities, long the pathway to higher education for those unable to afford private schools are now changing tuition and fees that are causing those who went to school on the WW II or even Vietnam era GI Bill blanch. This is the result of policies at both the federal and state levels which reduced the financial support for these colleges and universities. As the students (and their parents) were required to foot more of the bill, tuition at state schools approached that at private schools. Public Universities were no longer seen as part of the "general welfare" of our nation and states, but as a privilege for those who could afford them. Affording a college degree now often requires a combination of loans, part time jobs and applications for grants that cut into the time available for students to learn, and leave them with huge debts that last years past graduation. This is not what Mr. Jefferson intended.

In the 19th Century, and 8th Grade education was considered enough for most. In the 20th Century it was a high school education. In the 21st Century, providing a free public education Kindergarten through Bachelors' degree (or equivalent postsecondary training) is what is necessary to maintain America's competitiveness in the world, and Americans the "entry pass" to a middle class way of life. This would not eliminate our great private Universities for those who desire to attend them, just as a private school system operates in parallel to current public K-12 education, but it would make available to all the base education required to thrive in our and the world economy.

This is not something that can be mandated by the federal government, but it's something the federal government can encourage through policies and payments to the states. Public colleges and universities are state (and in some case city) institutions and the states must see that it is in their interest to provide this service to their citizens. Jobs seek out educated populations. People like to live where there is good education available. Representative democracy itself is dependent on an informed electorate. Let the other guyssupport education only for the few who can afford it, Democrats support free education available to all.