This is really a corollary to providing equal opportunity. The American myth of the level playing field can never become reality as long as children in Roxbury and rural Mississippi do not have the same access to education as children in Greenwich and Bel Air.
In order to make education truly equitable, we will have to make some people angry. First, we have to take away the veto power of teachers' unions over educational reforms. We need to make teaching the domain of those who have demonstrated competence and ability to teach, not those who possess a meaningless teaching credential.
We need higher salaries for teachers, but only for those teachers who pass stringent evaluations. Those who don't pass should be summarily booted.
In general, we need an increased financial commitment to education. But it must be be accompanied by a reform of the distribution of funds. We must abandon the system of financing schools with local property taxes, a system that perpetuates inequities among localities and raises barriers to disadvantaged students.
Finally, the government must guarantee a college education to anyone who wants it. This should probably be financed by a system in which people can pay off their college debt through a lifetime deduction of a percentage of their earnings.
4. Make the provision of social welfare adequate and fair.
Government subsidies for social welfare benefits should go to the deserving. That means taking away Social Security and Medicare benefits from the rich.
But more importantly, it means abolishing the middle-class welfare state that is hidden in the tax code. Tax breaks for employer-sponsored pension and health benefits cost the government far more than direct government spending on the poor. The home mortgage interest deduction costs far more than government housing subsidies. Yet these generous subsidies go practically unnoticed because no checks are written.
Government programs for the truly needy, such as Medicaid, unemployment benefits, housing assistance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children, are shamefully inadequate. We need a social welfare system that makes adequate provision for the most vulnerable members of society.
Such a system must include some kind of national health care plan. Whatever plan we choose, it must include effective cost controls.
5. Protect the physical environment and preserve our natural resources for posterity.
Nothing else we do will amount to much if we cannot bequeath a habitable planet to our children.
John L. Larew '91 is a former intern at The Washington Monthly. Any similarities between the author's agenda and the political philosophy espoused by that magazine are purely coincidental.