[Mmmike]

The solution is to recognize that learning is part of being human. No state, and people will still learn things.

[so_real]

To a degree you are right. But the Founders of this nation encouraged all citizens, including women, to have "reading, writing, and arithmetic" skills. Foremost among these was "reading". The Founders wanted all people to have the ability to read the Bible themselves, and thereby not live exclusively according the interpretation offered by their priest. This was incredibly important to them as they escaped persecution in Europe for their Protestant leanings. We've seen first-hand what happens when we allow our population to be dumbed-down by the public school system to the point of blindly following their leaders (aka. Hillary voters) If we did not insist on the children learning to read, write, and do maths ... how much worse off would the state of our nation be today? Children learn inherently, true, but what they learn may not be to read or think critically. They may only learn to be puppets.