Continued Conversations with Candidates: Rick Staggenborg discusses Education Reform

[This series of conversations with candidates is part of a new feature on Education Matters, and is entitled, "New Blood Needed For Bold Change: Cryn's Conversations With A New Type of Candidate." If you are a candidate running for office (city, state, or at the national level) and would like to be promoted on my site, please contact me at ccrynjohannsen@gmail.com. All candidates will have the opportunity to review the material I publish about them, so none of your words will be misconstrued. I'm happy to be of assistance in spreading the word about your candidacy, your values, and what you intend to do once elected. So far, I've interviewed Kevin Bradley (who's running as a Democrat for the House of Representatives, CO-5) and Rick Staggenborg, and he's running for U.S. as a Progressive in the state of Oregon.]

Rick Staggenborg expressed a desire to share his thoughts on education reform in the U.S at Education Matters. If you haven't donated to Rick's campaign, please do so today. He is a great candidate who is running as an independent for U.S. Congress in Oregon, and if you don't live in the state of Oregon, please spread the word about his campaign.

If Rick wins this campaign, I might just have a position in D.C., which would mean that I would be back in the U.S. and helping to promote a progressive agenda. That would include playing a more influential role in public discourse in D.C., and forcing those inside the Beltway to listen to the voice of the indentured educated class. If Rick has an interest in hiring me, as we discussed briefly, this would mean playing a more direct role in helping to design legislation that would help all student loan debtors. 

Let's hear what Rick had to say about education:

Democracy cannot long survive without the active engagement of an informed citizenry. This is the essence of Jefferson’s warning to the People of the United States about the danger of failing to provide an adequate education to our children. In the Information Age, that means that we have a duty to make college accessible to every man or woman who has the potential to succeed in a reformed system of higher education where even vocational track students receive the basic information necessary to fulfill their duties as citizens and voters.

Jefferson believed this to be so important that he had inscribed on his gravestone what he regarded as his major accomplishment and embodiment of his dream for America: 'Here lies the Founder and first President of the University of Virginia.' This was the first public university founded in the United States and one that awarded scholarships to any child who could pass entrance examinations. We can and must see that Jefferson’s dream is realized.

A twenty-first century system of education should include civics classes that include study of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and their relevance to modern Americans. Civics texts would not be chosen by political and religious fundamentalists who want to rewrite American history in a manner similar to the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, but exulting fascism rather than communism.

Children of self-identified conservatives can talk with children of self-identified liberals and together seek common meaning in the words of these great documents for themselves. Such promotion of independent thinking and open discussion about the meaning of democracy at such a young age would result in an informed electorate. As they grow and mature, this generation will be unafraid to defend its political positions in fear of being victimized by ignorant elders stuck in the old way of thinking that corporate control of government, the media and education is the natural order of society. They will instead be prepared to assume the responsibilities of the next generation of citizens and citizen-leaders who will mold their own destinies and the destiny of our nation.

It is possible to provide universal education through college if the American People want and demand it. Once the Constitutional amendment abolishing corporate personhood is introduced, it will become a litmus test for candidates seeking the office of Senator. I don’t fancy the chances of success for those willing to demonstrate their loyalty to corporations by refusing to support it. Together, self-styled liberals and their conservative counterparts can take back America for their children’s sake.

Once we have a government working for the People instead of corporations we can have whatever government services we are willing to pay for. The Freedom Fry-supporting corporate media like to paint the French as socialists because they didn’t jump on the fascist bandwagon when Bush sounded the call to war for corporate profit. The truth is that France’s more self-contained economy and effective social safety net allowed them to whether the storms of our recent financial crisis much better than the US, which is based on a system of corporate welfare. In France, unions thrive, middle class workers and small businesses continue to prosper and no one is worrying about whether they can send their kids to college or go bankrupt trying to pay medical bills. These are considered essential services by the French for reasons that should now be apparent to all Americans.

If we want our children and grandchildren to grow up healthy, wealthy and wise we will ensure that they have the right to a college education including in the health care professions, should they choose to do so. To provide services in a universal health care system we will need to expand medical and nursing education and pay nursing educators well enough to entice them from working to teach new generations of the nurses we depend on to keep our loved ones safe in times of medical crisis.

Every child with a normal brain is a potential genius. If we can design an educational system that supports the individual strengths of our children, we can produce what we are supposed to produce as loving parents: Children who will surpass our achievements at creating a more perfect society. Such a society is one in which everyone enjoys equal protection under the law and each has the same opportunity to succeed as the most economically fortunate among them.