I was moved to respond to an article in The Greeneville Sun, appearing January 10, 2015, entitled “President Outlines Free College Plan in Knoxville”. As justification the President stated “…a quality education cannot be a privilege that is reserved for a few. I think it’s a right for everybody who’s willing to work for it.”

I believe the President and I define differently “a quality education” and “willing to work for it”. Based on my 76 years of life, the business experience of starting at an entry level position and progressing to an executive position over 23 years; experience as a college teacher, adjunct evening faculty member, and small business consultant for 10 years; the founder and treasurer for a small public charity for the past 23, I offer the following inputs to this discussion:

1. A quality “public” education: I believe 12 years of public education (now expanded to 13 with kindergarten) is more than ample time to provide a sound, general basic education, provided it is properly organized and administered to insure that all students strive to emulate what I believe are America’s core values: “In God We Trust”, duty, honor, country, which makes a person self-supporting and charitable. Teaching that God through the Bible defines right and wrong, that giving one’s all to achieve the task at hand, that our word is our bond and we are to follow the “Golden Rule” in our dealings with others, and that loyalty to our country will result in a justified pride in America as the natural response to the unequaled freedoms and opportunities to which we are beckoned by the Statue of Liberty, and America’s Christian heritage. These American core values made our citizens unique, and do not cost $60 billion dollars and further Federal Government interference in State and local educational efforts. Included in required high school courses should be an emphasis on personal financial management (with topics like “never borrow on a credit card”), particularly in light of the financial crisis of 2008.
2. Willing to work for it: I suggest sitting in a classroom and learning how to receive a certain grade point average is not what “it” is all about. To “succeed” at job achievement in this life, I believe, one must plot a course to reach the career goal he or she should pursue after high school graduation. There should be no blue collar/white collar classifications or inferences. Craftsmen are as necessary as any professionals, and often more helpful to consumers in need. To me, willingness to work for it means giving my all to be the best I can be at the job I choose to pursue. One isn’t hired and promoted based on a paper certificate, but by all the qualities embedded in the above American core values. One must choose the job he/she aspires to before determining the best training/preparatory methods. One size doesn’t fit all!! In addition, any post high school craft/technical/professional education one chooses to enhance and further strengthen skills, needed in a chosen career job, should require a financial input from the trainee to insure proper appreciation, motivation, dedication, etc.

In follow-up speeches, the President says his purpose is to enable all Americans to compete and to win. Since we all tend to like professional sports, one need look no further than professional football or basketball to quickly confirm that those who are best in their jobs, did not achieve this success due to a college diploma, but to tireless practice in developing the skills necessary to achieve on the playing field.

For the past several years I have been concentrating my efforts on promoting the need for America to return to its core values:

1. To once again become the land of opportunity, not the land of entitlement.
2. To replace the desire to redistribute the earnings of others with the knowledge that “with God, I can do all things”.

The Bible’s wisdom is quite clear: We will reap what we sow, and we should not live by bread alone.

My plea to all Americans is that each one reach one (starting with our own families and communities) with the message of the need for revival of America’s core values, that once again the next generation can rival “the greatest generation” of World War II.

Ray W. Rowney, Jr.