The 2014-15 school year began slowly, or at least in history class. Over a disagreement over teachings in the new history textbooks, WHAP and APUSH both took weeks to get the materials necessary to study their classwork, improvising by printing out the packets from online instead.

This same issue was brought up recently in Oklahoma, where a motion to ban APUSH because of “anti-American” philosophies gained momentum and considerable media attention. It comes to pass that certain groups of people believe certain things, and when education isn’t in line with what they expect it angers them.

Nevertheless, nationally regulated education is important for policy decisions and unity. States attempt to restrict certain national educational policies, but all it does is hamper students’ education as they are left without funding, curriculum, and material. Some education is better than none at all.

Having a unified education system enables more straightforward policy discussion, and if everyone has the same context of a situation the policy itself can be debated properly without distractions by disagreements over what led to such issue.

Many people will argue that having a single education creates conditions for propaganda, but the Department of Education is full of representatives from across the country, and any major changes to the system require a strong majority vote. If any curriculum is as divisive as some appear to be, it would probably be opposed by more than just a single state.

It is right to have your own beliefs, and important to maintain some sense of independence against a norm. If you have beliefs, though, that means they were formed somewhere and you have a reason to believe them. If common education is contrary to your beliefs, it should just open up new ways to prove or question your beliefs, and make you a more intelligent and problem-solving person anyway.

Making states create their own education system may result in fifty different curriculums, which would could greatly contradict if someone moved from one place to another thereby creating confusion.

For the sake of organization and policy-making, and taking into account that the wide range of decision makers that determine education policy, we need to support a national education curriculum even if it may have its faults.