Why democracy needs higher education
by Dr. Michael C. Behrent
The defunding of public higher education currently underway across the country is troubling for many reasons. It is more than just bad policy: gutting public higher education weakens the democratic principles upon which our society is founded—specifically, liberty, equality, and civic participation.
Democracy thrives on liberty, and liberty requires free minds. This is one reason why education is so central to democracy: it provides citizens with the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that promote independent (and critical) thought, without which democracies wither away. For all their faults, universities are some of the few spaces in our society that remain dedicated to free inquiry, questioning prejudice and authority, and open debate between competing perspectives.
A recent Pew poll found that in Eastern Europe, the staunchest defenders of democratic liberties were those with a university education: “more highly educated people consistently place greater importance on freedom of speech, the press and religion, and honest elections than do those with less education.” This is what Thomas Jefferson was getting at when he wrote that taxes paid towards public education are “not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” Ensuring that as many Americans as possible can cultivate their intellectual autonomy at public universities is vital to our democracy’s health.
Another cardinal virtue of democracy is equality. At a time of unprecedented income disparities, this is something that many public officials overlook. Higher education has long been a pathway to equality for historically excluded and oppressed groups. The strides made by African-Americans towards greater equality have always marched in lockstep with greater access to education, particularly higher education. The Civil Rights movement made possible such critical watersheds as Brown vs. Board of Education, Hawkins v. Board of Control (launching desegregation in higher education), and the Higher Education Act of 1965 (which provided aid to low-income students and minority institutions). Though complete equality in access to higher education remained elusive, the number of African-Americans attending universities—particularly public universities—increased significantly from the 1960s until the mid-1970s.
- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/07/02/why-democracy-needs-higher-education/#sthash.nXOMwRel.dpuf
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of the things he talks about. For anyone with Netflix it is really worth watching.
Not only is it important to any upward mobility but without it we no longer produce new ideas that help create new jobs. 
