The fading dream of higher education in the US

[marmar]

The fading dream of higher education in the US
Once an engine of social mobility, higher education in the US now signifies debt and lack of opportunity.

Last Modified: 20 Jan 2012 15:31


New York, NY - It seems fitting that some of the activity inaugurated by the Occupy Wall Street movement migrated from city squares to college campuses, where students, from Berkeley to the City University of New York (CUNY), are protesting against the rising cost of their educations. Undeterred by pepper spray or police batons, they struggle to preserve the evanescent American dream of a top-flight affordable college education available to all. But, unless there are major transformations within academe and the rest of society, they may be fighting a losing battle.

Just as the frontier once allowed an enterprising individual to get ahead (or so the story went), by the middle of the 20th century, higher education had become the main engine of social mobility in the United States. A college degree, it was believed, would boost its holders into the middle class and then keep them and their children there. Recently, however, as the US economy turned sour, that promise no longer holds. Not only have rising tuitions and unmanageable student debt threatened to put a first-rate higher education out of reach for many of the 99 per cent, but it has also become harder for graduates to enter the well-paying careers they went to college for.

The economic insecurities that have blasted so many students' hopes did not originate on campus. They stem in large part from the ascendance of a neoliberal polity that worships the corporate sector and seeks to shrink the state. Businesses pursue the bottom line by shedding jobs, while demanding lower taxes and fewer regulations. The very concept of a common good, of a system that nurtures citizenship and offers all in the US the benefits the market does not provide, has lost its meaning.

In response, higher education has also abandoned the common good. Most in the US now view it solely from a narrowly economic perspective. Vocational training has replaced the liberal arts, while administrators strive to make their campuses engines of economic growth, rather than sites for intellectual experimentation and meaningful cultural encounters. Of course, graduates need to earn a living, but they also need to have a life worth living. And adapting colleges and universities to today's profit-driven environment imposes financial and educational costs that may simply be too high - for students, for the academy and for that elusive common good. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/2012113131643983539.html

[exboyfil]

1. At our state universities nursing, business, and engineering students

pay $2K/yr more than the Liberal Arts College. These universities require more Social Studies/Humanities/English than the equivalent Social Studies/Humanities/English majors require science and mathematics. For example engineering requires two upper level (Junior/Senior) level Social Studies/Humanities while you can get by with general survey courses in Math and Science in other majors.

The admission requirements for these majors are also far greater than the traditional liberal arts majors.

[jwirr]

2. I have begun to wonder if the dream of education is ending for all ages. Yes, I know the unions

and the teachers are fighting for it but look at what is happening. There are a lot states that are trying to end it as we know it. They want privatization which ultimately could mean that education becomes a priviledge not a right for anyone who cannot afford to pay their own way. I hope this is not so. Wait until gas hits $5 a gallon. Imagine the cost of transporting children miles and miles to and from school. We are just beginning to see the backlash.

[marmar]

3. Sobering thoughts.

nt