The Value of Education in America

At this point, the United States places very little importance on education. Exactly why that is can be argued, but here are a few suggestions.

The benefits of an educated population reveal themselves over a period of decades.  Similarly, the environmental damage caused by climate change occurs over long periods of time, and human beings (especially Americans) have extremely short time horizons that inform their thinking and decision-making.

The extreme right-wing believes that there is no value, perhaps even negative value, to education, insofar as it cranks out woke socialists.

It’s provable that educated people tend to be liberals.  If you doubt this, look at the rankings of education by state to the results of the 2020 presidential election (see chart below) that Trump lost by 7 million votes.

It may be worthwhile to compare the U.S. to countries that provide free college education to anyone who wants it.  The latter tend to be happier, healthier, and, perhaps most interesting of all, freer.