Is Education a Right or an Entitlement?

I was brought up through the public school system and have heard many folks express the idea, “obtaining an education is every child’s right”; for that matter, everyone’s right. Until I understood the difference between rights and entitlements I never would have questioned such reasoning.

I guess red flags being waved in the gray matter portions, deep inside my head are the reason for the salt and pepper around my temples. When I hear, “It’s for the children”, those little red flags start going back and forth as a warning not to buy into what ever line follows.

When I was a police officer, one of my captains, a man easily in his 60’s, had a full crop of jet black hair. I mentioned how nicely he’d matured, sucking up to a superior officer if you will. He smiled a wry smile and replied, “I don’t get gray hair, I give it!” I bet he read nothing but the funny papers, leaving that other garbage for others to worry about.

A brief history; rights are inalienable and come from God while entitlements are privileges granted by government to various segments of society. Just think how the world would look today if that line had been included in Cliff Notes version of American History for Dummies.

If you’d like a list of rights, may I suggest reading the Constitution and Bill of Rights; imagine that, actually knowing what constitutes a right. On the other hand, if you’d like a list of entitlements I’m afraid I haven’t got the time or inclination to list them all. Here’s a clue on how to determine for sure if an item falls into the entitlement category; if it requires someone else’s time, effort or capital investment then it’s an entitlement.

That having been said, go back in your thought processes and classify education in all its forms from Pre-K on through college, medical services, transportation services, telephone and the entire idea of communication services and tell me, are these rights or entitlements? If you answered “rights” you likely swallowed the Kool-Aid offered by our government run public education system. If you answered, “Duh, rights?”, then it’s time for another hair dresser appointment; your blond roots are showing.

I must be out of the loop; never got my invitation from SDS, the one telling me about the March 4 Day of Action and Strike in Defense of Public Education . Brenda J. Elliot wrote about a group of unhappy anti-Americans; I guess she wasn’t invited either.

You might question my use of the term “anti-American”; let me list some of the organizations who are lined up, lined up to demand the entitlement of a free education.

I’ll start with the International Socialist Organization, “which David Horowitz’s Discover the Networks describes as an “Anti-American, anti-capitalist Communist organization” found on “many American campuses”.


“Also listed among the endorsements is Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), the geriatric Students for a Democratic Society group that supports the new and improved SDS.”

“Evoking the Communist tradition of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin, the Chicago-based International Socialist Organization (ISO) aspires to “organize activists in workplaces and communities and on campuses in order to mobilize opposition to all forms of oppression and exploitation.” The chief source of this oppression and exploitation, in ISO’s view, is capitalism — whose inevitable by-products are poverty, environmental degradation, war, famine, and most other ills that plague humanity. ISO places the blame for international strife largely on the United States, and more specifically the Republican Party…”

Visions of Patty Hearst brandishing a machine gun come to mind when the letters SDS are put next to each other; must be something I ate and it tasted really bad.

The list goes on; Socialist Party of Connecticut, and the Ohio chapter of Progressive Democrats of America are demanding a strike for education too. I see a pattern developing; could it be all these organizations want capitalism to fail in favor of socialism?

“The Boston link is sponsored by Communist affiliated United for Peace and Justice, the same radical group Barack Obama associated himself with while in the Illinois State Senate. Unsurprisingly, Van Jones worked with UPJ in California.”

Dustin Hoffman did a good job in his part, “There’s definitely a pattern, definitely a pattern” followed by “two hundred thirty seven, two hundred thirty eight, there are two hundred and thirty eight tooth picks on the floor”. In the movie, Rainman he’d wander around waiting for Judge Whopner on television. As a note, I have no idea of Dustin Hoffman’s political leanings; just wanted to use that line.

I’m pretty sure I want nothing to do with any of those organizations; but tell me, how much influence do these folks have in our public school systems, in our colleges and universities?


David Horowitz wrote in his book, One-Party Classroom, “If even a university with an unequivocal academic freedom policy like Penn State can’t be bothered to take action to cope with the problems of radicalism and political activism in the curriculum, what hope is there for other colleges and universities across the country?” (page 113)


The folks in charge of teaching our children have been infiltrated with hard core anti-Americans, folks who will stop at nothing to destroy the foundations of our society one brick at a time.

Unfortunately we have a President who surrounds himself with hard left anti-American socialists. I can’t remember who said it recently, “a line has been drawn in the sand and future generations will hold us accountable for having destroyed their liberties and the American dream”. I may have that off by a word or two; my apologies for not having properly given credit as I normally save important truisms to file.

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.