In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy famously urged, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

That sentence shines with rhetorical beauty and balance, but might be more accurate by changing one word: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your community.”

By community, I mean our families, our friends, and the place where we live. Make those our ambitions, and we boost our country in the bargain.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when many Americans of all political persuasions ask what their country can do for them. Instead of seeking solutions to problems close to home, they instead ask big government to take them under its wing, forgetting that when they do so, they’re exchanging their liberties for a mess of pottage.

Today’s public education system serves as a stellar example of the consequences of this lopsided swap. In her essay, “Ending the School Grift,” Sam Sorbo contrasts the enormous amount of money governments annually spend on public schools with the diminishing returns from that education. “In 2019,” Sorbo reports, “per-pupil spending averaged $13,187, with total K-12 expenditures reaching $739 billion.” She notes, “A significant portion goes to administrative overhead, infrastructure projects, and external consultants, rather than directly benefiting classrooms.” Despite these disbursements, in 2023 only about 25% of eighth graders were grade-proficient in reading and math.

Little has changed since 2019 other than the ever-increasing sums lavished on public schools. Education Data Initiative reports in early 2025 that spending per pupil for grades K-12 was $17,277, with the amount for all students totaling $857.2 billion annually.

What might happen if the Department of Education was either closed or radically reduced in size, perhaps becoming a small investigative agency of a hundred people or so whose only purpose was to develop or recommend guidelines and strategies for learning? What if state agencies were likewise reduced in size, charged with creating and enforcing regulations and general standards while otherwise leaving classroom control to local government and school boards?

These changes would not only dramatically slash the costs of our schools but would also put the responsibility for education squarely where it belongs, on the community. Today few people involved in the amorphous blob that is our public school system bear the blame for its failure. Put responsibility in the hands of locals, and we’d see that situation change in the blink of an eye.

Recent reactions to our country’s natural disasters underscore this point. In last year’s catastrophic Hurricane Helene, for instance, which some of my family members and good friends living in western North Carolina witnessed first-hand, the news media from both ends of the political spectrum all too often focused on the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Reporters and citizens alike either praised or deprecated the efforts of FEMA, unintentionally revealing our obsessional dependence on government. The real heroes and helpers in that catastrophe were the boots-on-the-ground folks, local officials, church groups, volunteers, and all the others who, from near and far, rushed to the aid of their neighbors and fellow Americans.

Responsibility is the big lesson here. When we take responsibility for our ourselves, our families, and our communities, we no longer need a big brother government such as we have now. The locals know their community far better than those who are hundreds or even thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C.

Even more, the locals love their communities in ways impossible for government bureaucrats. There’s no mystery here. We love what we know, and we want to nourish and protect what we love.

So, if we want to do something for our country, we can start with community as I’ve defined it above. The ways and means of doing so are simple, really:

• Work hard
• Practice the virtues
• Be kind whenever possible
• Raise good children
• Devote some time, in however small a way, to helping others
• Seek God and find a place of worship that matches your beliefs
• Look to government as a last resort rather than a go-to first option

Most of all, never lose hope. The headlines may be black and threatening as storm clouds, but if we keep our eyes open, we find the goodness of ordinary Americans all around us.

Brighten the corner where we are, and our country will be a better place.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

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