Some understand education can better their world

Such as these Muslim women:

The 5,000-odd women of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) work for the uplift of Indian Muslim women across the country and strongly believe that education is the one tool that will empower them. Around 350 of its members were in the capital last week for the first annual convention. Khatun Sheikh of Mumbai has been a part of BMMA since its inception in January this year. She said that being able to read and write is the greatest tool that a woman can have to fight all odds.

And some want to destroy it because it threatens their beliefs:

The Discovery Institute is spreading misinformation again. They have a document that implies that it would be OK for schools in at least some states to "teach the controversy", by which they mean that it is alright for teachers to promote Intelligent Design creationism in their classes. I wonder if the DI would also consider themselves liable if any teacher followed their advice, and discovered that they were costing their district an awful lot of money, as in Dover? Somehow, I doubt it.

But it truly is the great equalizer:

Education, as Horace Mann intelligently put it, "Beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, -- the balance-wheel of the social machinery." His argument is sound. According to Mann, educating the common man is the secret to success that progressive societies must understand to remain successful. In fact, almost every political, societal, or economic problem can be resolved by educating more people.

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Educating the masses can solve every dilemma currently facing our country, be it political, social, or economic. The higher the percentage of the general public receiving a general education, the better. By law, children under age 16 must attend public school, but is that enough? As a society we should encourage the attendance of schools of higher education, for the fate of the economy, social standards, and political values rest in the hands of the educated.

So pay attention to leaders who downplay and belittle education: