Recently America’s president spoke to the school children of the nation.  As so often happens in today’s rancorous political climate, what really matters about education was lost in the accompanying discordant cacophony of vitriolic name-calling and partisan finger-pointing.

While the United States is busy spending somewhere between one and three trillion unfunded federal tax dollars for countless domestic programs and fighting the grueling wars of Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time as a worsening world food crisis is spreading from country to country, including our own, Congress is busy “fiddling while Rome burns” with such strategically irrelevant matters as whether professional baseball players used steroids in years past or which college football teams should play in post-season bowl games.  All this while our elected political “leaders” silently ignore that a somewhat invisible yet fundamental national underpinning is silently collapsing, portending colossal future consequences for you and for me. 

As a longtime participant in presidential politics, I’ve been watching the noisy national political debate maybe a little more than the average citizen.  To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, it sounds to me – at least so far – that the oft distasteful jibber-jabber coming from Congress sounds a lot like “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

I do not mean to imply that any specific politician is an idiot; I’ll leave it to the politicians to label each other.  Rather, from a national security perspective it is the “sound and fury” at the highest levels which “signify nothing” that deeply concerns me.

This imperiled national underpinning of which I speak is education, and the recently released statistics should be cause for alarm for every American.  Education of the children of America is in very serious trouble, posing a grave unanswered threat to our long-term national economic security and prosperity.

It is almost beyond understanding that in this the most blessed nation on earth, every 26 seconds an American child drops out of high school, one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world.  That adds up to an incomprehensible 1.2 million dropout children each and every year!  1 in 4 Americans does not graduate from high school on time, if ever, and double that ratio for minority and low income students!

American fourth graders rank at or near the top globally in math and science.  Yet by the time they reach their senior year of high school a short eight years later, American math and science students score near the bottom of all industrialized nations.

Twenty-six years ago President Ronald Reagan appointed a national commission of distinguished citizens to assess the state of America’s education.  Their highly acclaimed report, “A Nation at Risk”, acknowledged our education system was in poor health, yet at that time the United States ranked number one in college graduation rates.  Today we rank twenty-first.  Obviously the patient’s health is rapidly worsening.

These are examples of chilling trend lines.  But the problem for the United States is not limited to students.  In a recent survey compiled by the education advocacy group Common Core, researchers found a third of respondents did not know that the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of speech and religion, that a quarter could not identify Adolf Hitler, and less than half knew the Civil War took occurred between 1850 and 1900.  Nearly 20% didn’t know who the U.S. fought in World War II.  11% thought that Dwight Eisenhower was the president forced from office by the Watergate scandal, while another 11% thought it was Harry Truman. 

As adults we should be deeply concerned about America’s future and the educational plight of the nation’s children.  As Latter-day Saints, we know that "whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.  And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come." (D&C130:18-19) 

We have a doctrinal responsibility to be anxiously mindful about this nation’s precious children– and thus about this nation’s education and to work to improve it in the communities where we live, and beyond.

“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”  (Articles of Faith 13)   Surely seeking quality education for all children meets this splendid tenant of our discipleship.

“The Church,” said President Thomas S. Monson, “has always had a vital interest in public education and encourages its members to participate in parent-teacher activities and other events designed to improve the education of our youth.”  A prophet calls for you and me to work to “improve the education of youth.”

Our individual lives are busy; most of us today have “a full plate”.  Yet President David O. McKay warned us that the “perpetuity of the nation” depends “upon the proper education of youth.”  As the host nation for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the “perpetuity of the nation” must be of concern to each and every Latter-day Saint.

Can’t we do better?  For a nation founded under the hand of Divine Providence, as the founders acknowledged, something is keenly amiss and cries out for enormous and rigorous improvement.

The answer is not necessarily found in increased public funding, though that may well be a part, or in more government programs.  Foremost, the solutions are to be found in the families and homes of the nation, in more parents and grandparents being fully involved, and in each of us striving for a deeper acknowledgement that each child is precious in the sight of God.  Every dropout child must become of alarm to each of us.

America’s greatness lies in her people, in their great goodness and astonishing accomplishment and countless capacities; indeed America’s leadership in the world happens because of her people.  With less than 75% of our children graduating from high school, our nation and her future is unquestionably jeopardized.

When he took office nine months ago, President Barack Obama listed his top three priorities for the new Administration, and education was not one of them.  Educational achievement for every child is a local issue in every city and town and village, but to use Presidency McKay’s words, the “perpetuity of the nation” today demands it also become a meaningful priority for national leaders and for us citizens.

At a time of painful underemployment and unemployment (the most severe since the Great Depression), with global competitiveness and technological advances expanding on all fronts, a well educated American work force is more than an education issue.  It’s an imperative matter of immediately endangered economic prosperity and long-term national economic security.

In momentous measure, the future of this nation will depend on how well we educate the children and youth of today and tomorrow – before it grows too late.