Education a priority?

Time alarm clock went off: 5:45 am, Time got out of bed: 6:15 am, Minutes took getting dressed: 15, Number of times looked at the clock wishing to have just 10 more minutes: 5, Minutes took finding shoes: 4 (they were finally found buried in a pile of laundry meant to be done last week)
Education in a way is freedom: the freedom to think, to know, to wonder. Education, people tell us, is the essence of equality. We are lucky, extremely lucky to be offered education, to be able to take education for granted. At the same time a student in America is pleading to stay home from school for a day, a child on the other side of the Earth is longing, dreaming to learn to read or write, to unravel that mysterious puzzle of letters and numbers. Our world is divided, yes, it’s true. And, it’s up to us, the people who define our world, to change that. Every single one of us is part of the future. In 100 years, we all will be part of history, perhaps not our names, but our being, the fact that we lived, breathed in 2007. One of the great ingredients of change is to start small, to start where the benefits can be reaped, touched, to start at home.
It seems odd to me that in a country whose roots are watered with freedom, education is not pristine, not perfect. Doesn’t it seem logical to provide the future politicians, doctors, inventors, teachers, mothers, fathers, bankers, pilots, scientists, and voters with the best education possible? One of us, one person from the mass of teenagers that grace our country will someday become president. One day some of us will pass laws, build bridges, deliver babies, design cars, take care of the sick. The ones who are educated now will later be this country’s leaders. Are we choosing to put an excellently educated person into that role or merely a person with a mediocre educational background? It’s our choice. Completely and utterly up to us. We are, after all, the people of our free country.
I think it’s time for America to step up to the plate. To start straightening out our priorities. War or education? Death or flourishing life? It’s up to us to decide. It’s up to us to make change.