EDUCATION WATCH : Broken Chain

Respect for the past, regard for the future--a society that manages both is likely to thrive; one that neglects either is likely to weaken.

Respect for the past, in immediate human terms, means respect for those, the elderly, from whom we have received our society, those who have brought us up into it.

Regard for the future, by the same token, means regard for those, the young, to whom our society will be bequeathed and upon whom, in our own old age, we must rely.

The hand of the child in the hand of the adult, the arm of the adult around the shoulder of the aged--this is the human chain that makes us who we are. But that chain now has a weak link.

Thanks to the FICA tax, which every taxpayer pays, social security is in good shape. We have told ourselves that we have no choice about this.

But education is paid for by property tax and sales tax, and rumblings have been heard of a tax revolt joining the childless to the elderly whose children, if any, are grown.

The undeniable deterioration of America’s public schools has added to the coalition an unknown number of middle-class parents, coping, resentfully, with the high cost of private-school tuition. Those left out are those at the bottom, who would vote if they were better educated, and would be better educated if they voted.

The spiral is clearly downward and won’t be reversed soon. Meanwhile, we must count on the elderly and the childless to help provide our young with what, after all, they themselves were provided when they were young.