The purpose of public education is to shape citizens of the republic to be capable of the heavy task of self-government. This country’s first real education “expert,” Noah Webster, summarized the purpose of universal public schooling even more directly: “Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he lisps be Washington.”

Our current public education system, however, is so far removed from this basic purpose that even stating it in nearly any education-related forum seems positively reactionary and, at best, tangential to the quasi-scientific “profession” that now swallows $800 billion from the public annually. In fact, given the clashes now happening with increasing frequency all over the country over critical race theory, gender ideology, anti-American activism, and more, its purpose could fairly be described today as alienating students from their country and setting them on a course to hate it and one other.