Political Conventions

By Dr. Laura Palmer Noone
CEO of University of the Potomac

I have watched portions of both the political conventions and while they are most entertaining, I get concerned that some people watching don’t think critically enough about the content served up by either party.  Too often the speeches seem aimed at creating good sound bites, and less about solid plans to serve our country and by extension the global economy.

Is this because the political parties believe that the American public is too ignorant to absorb the truth?  It reminds me of the historic debate between Hamilton and Jefferson over the role of the people in government. In case you have forgotten that part of history, Hamilton believed that the farmers and laborers were not educated enough to be entitled to vote and that only the highest levels of society should be afforded the ability to govern.  Jefferson, on the contrary, felt that every landowner should be allowed to vote.  (This is what drove the creation of the electoral college.) History proved that Hamilton had the better plan for that period of history, but I would like to think that being uneducated is not the same thing as being incapable and that debate would result in a different end today.

That is one of the reasons I am so passionate about the mission of University of the Potomac.  Education is clearly the pathway to a better life and it should be affordable and accessible to all.  We should not assume that by race, gender, ethnicity or origin that an individual is incapable of benefiting from a higher education.

We can only put people back to work if they have the right skills, training and education to perform the jobs and sound bites and catchy phrases or promises will not get the job done.  So I say to the presidential nominees – thanks for the sound bites, but I am far more interested in how you are going to support making education in the US a priority again.