What saves us from the educational tyanny of a totalitarian regime (similar to where Barack was taking this nation) is educational pluralism

Why did Obama and others push for "free college" for all,  and not even hint at developing a healthy secondary system of some sort, a vocational system,  home schools,  and religious schooling opportunities?  The answer is found in the following excerpt and the article in which it is embedded.  ~  editor

Popular schooling is often a primary focal-point for attempts to make effective the hegemony of the sovereign state over every aspect of society [schools that are described as "higher education" are invested in the imposition of the state into our daily lives  ~  editor]   to achieve not only obedience to laws and policies but also an inner disposition immune to alternative or partial loyalties. Employed in a monopolistic manner as under totalitarian regimes, it poses the profoundest threat to freedom. Educational pluralism, of the sort that emerged spontaneously as the American nation developed but has been under growing threat in recent decades, is the best protection against this profoundly undemocratic abuse.
Read the article by Glenn in toto,  here. 

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Charles L. Glenn is professor emeritus of educational leadership and policy studies at Boston University. This commentary is excerpted from his article, “Democratic Pluralism in Education,” which appears in the most recent Journal of Markets & Morality.