Photo courtesy of Sarasota County Schools.

Today, Americans everywhere will pause to mark something extraordinary: 250 years of an American experiment that, against considerable odds, is still underway. The parades, the flags, the gatherings and cookouts with family and friends – all of it hard-earned by those who came before us. This is a significant milestone worth celebrating with gratitude and genuine pride in how far we have come.

The question I keep returning to is this, as someone who lives and breathes education: are we honoring the founding promise that made all of this possible?

The Founders were explicit about it. In 1787, the Continental Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in American history, enacted the same summer delegates gathered in Philadelphia to draft the Constitution. Among its provisions was a declaration as clear as anything regarding education in the founding canon:

“Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

Forever. And so, education became inextricably linked to democracy and remains to this day.

Thomas Jefferson proposed Virginia’s first public education system that same decade, arguing that talent is distributed across all of society, not concentrated only in wealthy families, and that a democracy which fails to develop that talent is squandering its own future. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in 1786 that without a system of public education, the Revolution itself would eventually fail and that winning independence meant nothing if the new nation could not sustain an informed, capable citizenry. George Washington devoted his Farewell Address, in part, to the same conviction. These were not inconsequential voices. They were the architects of the republic, and they were unanimous: democracy and ignorance cannot long coexist.

The Founders’ vision, for all its clarity, was incomplete. The promise of public education did not yet extend to every child, and every generation since has been called to expand that circle. That is not a reason to diminish what they built. It is the nature of founding documents and founding ideas to establish a direction and then charge those who follow with the work of getting there.

Two hundred and fifty years later, that work continues. And here in Sarasota, we are fortunate to live in a community that takes it seriously. Our schools are staffed by dedicated educators who show up every day for students navigating circumstances most of us will never fully see. Our philanthropic community invests in programs that go beyond the classroom, identifying students who need a caring adult, a clearer path forward, or simply someone who believes in what they are capable of. And increasingly, we are asking a different question, not just whether a student is achieving, but who they are becoming. That investment is not charity. It is the founding promise, renewed.

And yet the work is not done. It never has been, in any generation. In Sarasota County today, there are students who will not complete their postsecondary education without intentional support. There are young people who are capable of far more than their circumstances have yet allowed them to demonstrate. Closing that gap, as a matter of community commitment, is how we answer what the Founders started.

The 250th anniversary is a moment. What matters more is what we do on July 5th, and the weeks after that, and on the morning in August when another school year begins and another group of young students walks through a door that we collectively decided to open for them.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of imperfect, visionary people declared that an educated citizenry was not optional. It was the foundation of everything. They were right. That is how we honor what was started here 250 years ago, not just with celebration, but with action.

Happy birthday, America. The next 250 years belong to the children in our classrooms today and the generations that will follow. What we invest in them and for them is our truest answer to what this anniversary means.

Jennifer Vigne is President and CEO of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County and host of the podcast Education Conversations.

Photo courtesy of Sarasota County Schools.