2009/7/4 Bruce Metcalf <[email protected]> > But how does an educational requirement strike the rest of you?
I think we first need to define what education means. For me, anybody with the skills, knowledge, intelligence, and well being (both physical and mental) to earn an steady income to support himself and his dependents through legal means; and pays taxes and therefore contributes to the state has the right to vote. Obviously, there is no formal system of education that guarantees this, and to an extent I don't think a formal education system can be instituted with only these goals in mind. Also, it is the responsibility of the state/society/press to highlight issues of importance and help the populace understand them so they can make the right choice. This burden cannot fall on the individual. And denying the individual the right to vote and therefore the right to participate in the betterment of the very thing that has failed him somehow doesn't seem right. Furthermore, education (or the benefits of it accruing to the individual) depends on the socio-economic situation one is born into/sometimes forced into due to no inherent fault of his/her own. Even making public education free and cops putting kids not in school without valid reason back in school (as in the US) doesn't solve this problem, now or even in the forseeable future. A simplistic example - a child born to abusive parents can hardly pay attention to his studies, but should he/she be denied the right to vote? Kiran
