Politics & Power Quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt frames schooling as the one budget line that must stay politically untouchable, and the phrasing does real work: “last expenditure” turns education from a nice-to-have into a civic emergency reserve. “Economize” is a deliberately mild verb, the language of household thrift, not ideological warfare. That’s the point. He’s preempting the reflex to treat public education as discretionary spending whenever the economy tightens, recasting cuts as a kind of national self-harm.

The intent sits squarely in the New Deal worldview: government isn’t just a night watchman; it’s an engine for stabilizing democracy. In the Great Depression’s shadow, education becomes both relief and long-term infrastructure. Keep schools funded and you keep people employed (teachers, staff, builders), communities anchored, and kids from becoming a “lost generation” of under-trained workers in a rapidly mechanizing economy.

The subtext is also a warning about what austerity really buys: a cheaper state today and a weaker republic tomorrow. Roosevelt understood that democracies don’t only collapse from coups; they rot when citizens lose the tools to interpret events, compete for work, and trust public institutions. By calling schools the “last” place to economize, he’s not romanticizing classrooms. He’s betting that literacy, social mobility, and civic competence are strategic assets, especially when demagogues and despair are competing for attention.

It’s a moral argument disguised as a fiscal one: protect education budgets not because children are virtuous symbols, but because the nation can’t afford the alternative.