The Public's Right to Know

I recently read a story The New York Times entitled, "Rare Double Agent Disrupted Bombing Plot, U.S. Says" that really struck a cord with me. The story is that intelligence agent from Saudi Arabia infiltrated the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda last month posing as a suicide bomber who was going to blow up a United-States bound airliner with Al Qaeda's latest bomb that was supposed to be undetectable.

I would have thought that the U.S. would have celebrated this achievement and used it to gain more popularity for the Obama campaign because it shows that he is tough on terrorism. Instead, U.S. intelligence officials were angry that the story got leaked because "they feared the leak would discourage foreign intelligence services from cooperating with the United States" and because leaking the story is "causing our partners to be leery about working with us." I certainly understand the argument that the intelligence officials don't want the methods that they use to become known and also that the U.S. needs to maintain a trusting relationship with other countries in order to better prevent terrorist attacks.

But isn't it also the public's right to know what is threatening their safety? Ignorance is only bliss until something goes wrong. I feel that while the facts about the double agent should not have been leaked to the public, the public should at least know that a new terrorist plot was foiled that involved a brand new harder to detect underwear bomb. How much harm could 300 million extra sets of eyes do? The news has the possibility to cause paranoia but I'd rather be on the safe side when it comes to issues like this.

Modern Reconstruction

We have been talking in class recently about better ways to manage the era of reconstruction after the civil war. This made me think what would be the best way to reconstruct the time we live in now? With so many issues being battled with on a daily basis, where would you even start?

Personally I think we should start with the education system which would hopefully allow us to prepare for tomorrow and have a more well rounded society. An education would allow those people living in poor areas a chance to escape their current lives and give them an all around better shot at success. When I was reading an article on how education is funded that can be found here, I found that even though the U.S. puts the most money into the education system out of any country, "nations that spend far less achieve higher levels of student performance." So the answer isn't to just throw money into the education system.

Finland is rated the top nation in terms of education. This article, on the World Education Forum, describes the Finnish education system and why it is so successful. The biggest problem I feel our education system is facing is the massive gap between the well funded education in affluent areas and the underfunded education in poor areas.  This comes from the schools being funded by property taxes. It seems to me that the simple answer would be to fund all schools the same amount. In Finland education is provided to everyone "regardless of their economic situation." In the U.S., most quality education is provided to the lucky few that can afford to pay for it. This could either be by enrolling in a private school or moving to an affluent neighborhood.

In Finland, According to the World Education Forum, even the post-compulsory education, which is like college in the U.S., is free for everyone. This comes from the Finnish government wanting to achieve "as high level of education as possible for the whole population." If we look at the current situation in the U.S., does the U.S. government want the same thing? The costs of colleges are continually rising leaving many families of kids who are qualified for college unable to attend on the sole basis that they can't afford it.

Now I realize that it would be near impossible to scrap the current education system. But why not tweak it a little? Maybe try to fund schools more evenly. Give the under privileged children a fighting chance. Maybe the U.S. could buck the trend of only focusing on the present and invest in the future which is all of the children in school right now.