Editor’s Note: Zach Silverman is the president of College Democrats at University of Colorado Boulder. The opinions represented in this article do not necessarily represent those of the staff of CU Independent nor any of its sponsors.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ve fed him for life.
This is the basic argument that we, as a society, should be focused less on giving people things like food, shelter and money, and, instead, focus on educating them so that they may earn these necessities themselves. It is simply unrealistic for the government to hand out money to everyone. The key to a sustainable society and solving its major problems is education. Today’s pressing problems such as poverty, crime and homelessness can all be solved with education.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there were an estimated 46.2 million people living in poverty in America in 2011. Poverty is what forces our government to spend money on welfare, Medicaid, food stamps and other social welfare programs. Furthermore, there’s evidence to show that there’s a significant correlation between a person’s education and their socioeconomic status. Over 40 percent of the variation in average reading scores and 46 percent of the variation in math scores are associated with child poverty, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has found.
The amount of savings for both the government and its citizens would be astronomical if they traded a perpetual state of poverty for education.
Social welfare appropriations are not the only area in which the government could decrease its deficit. Our country spends an absurd amount on imprisoning citizens, not to mention the social cost of violent crime. A Justice Review study found significant evidence that shows poverty and income inequality are associated with violent crime. It is no stretch of the imagination to believe that a man with less education and little food is more likely to commit a crime, violent or non-violent.
Imprisoning citizens for violent crimes is just, and clearly the sacrifice needs to be made in order to keep violent offenders off of our streets. But what if we could simply avoid them becoming violent altogether? The social benefit of decreased crime as well as the economic benefit of decreased spending are two areas that we should be looking towards in reforming education in this country.
Finally, we could easily decrease the number of homeless people simply by increasing their income through investing in their education. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a direct relationship between higher education and an increase in income. Furthermore, there is an indirect relationship between higher education and the likelihood of being unemployed. This is not just about reducing the number of homeless, but becoming a wealthier nation as a whole. We can only benefit from a more-educated and wealthier nation. The sacrifice lies in the initial investment in public education.
At the end of the day, it’s easier to give the man a fish instead of teaching him to fish, but teaching the man to fish has better and longer lasting benefits for both him and his society. However, teaching a man to fish takes an investment. Someone has to be willing to use their time to teach him. Someone must buy the man a fishing pole and buy him bait.
All of these issues represent the investment that we must make as Americans. If we are not willing to spend our money on food stamps and government housing, then we should be willing to spend our money on investing in better schools, higher pay for teachers, better and up-to-date textbooks and supplies, innovative teaching methods and after school programs. We are all investing in ourselves today. We are sacrificing thousands of dollars in order to ensure better lives for ourselves in the future. We should encourage our country to do the same and invest in its citizens.
Contact President of CU Democrats Zach Silverman at Zachary.e.silverman@colorado.edu.