CHAPTER 2

An Absolute Good: Education’s Value to Workers and Employers

There is no institution more important to the protection and development of a functioning democracy than education. This idea has been cherished for centuries and promoted by many of America’s greatest figureheads. For instance, late in his life, in a letter to a prominent merchant and former U.S. ambassador, Thomas Jefferson touted education as a guardian of the Constitution:

“I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society, but the people themselves: and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is, not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective ...

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