This is not about being a Republican or a Democrat. It is about ensuring our citizens have the knowledge they need to participate in a democracy. Concerned about self-government, one of the first things the founders of our republic did was to create colleges, because they realized that democracy can't work if the citizens know nothing. As Jefferson wrote: "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large …"