Getting education becoming matter of life and death

[prolesunited]

Read this about the Ohio man who has been captured:
Maupin, 20, joined the Army reserves in 2002 to help pay for college. He was called to active duty in November and went to Iraq in February.

How crazy have things gotten that we make young men and women risk their lives in pursuit of a college education?

College costs continue to soar, with less federal and state aid there to bridge the gap. With unions losing their power, a college education is mandatory if you want even a chance at a decent job.

Now, with the poverty draft in play again, we have so many signing on the dotted line that they are willing to risk death in order to get ahead in the ultimate game of "Survivor."

Do you find this situation acceptable? Is it worth the risk? Why do people accept this?

[skooooo]

1. No one wants to support higher education...

...so this is what you get.

[Mika]

2. Except for their own kids.

We're not all like that.

[skooooo]

7. I'm saying society as a whole doesn't support..

..higher education. Universities have had budget cuts for 10+ years. There's not much left to cut, so they increase tuition and cut programs. It's ridiculous what is happening in this country.

[PaDUer]

8. I don't want to say...

how much my sons OWE on loans for college...will take years and years to repay..and they're not done yet...law schools and med school.

[skooooo]

10. Guess they'll have to charge more to pay..

...for the loans, won't they? The costs get passed on to society whether it realizes it or not. The biggest price we'll pay, though, is having an uneducated population. Keep 'em dumb and poor, and they're easier to send to war.

[PaDUer]

13. One thing that I stressed since they were very young

was education..4 sons..and NO WAY in hell will they be going to Iraq..Honestly, I'm shaking in my shoes due to the fact that medical people, my one son who was a cpa for a big 5 firm left, and returned to school to become a doctor!! Oh god!!...Hopefully, his medical problems may save him--agent orange from their father who was in Nam and is dying.

[brokensymmetry]

3. People accept it because -

they aren't willing to pay a few dollars more in taxes.

Once, before WWII and the GI bill, only the wealthy went to college. We are seeing that same situation forming again.

Within a decade - unless matters change - 4 year undergraduate degree at a state supported public university may well cost $100,000 for tuition alone. No, I'm not kidding.

[prolesunited]

6. I really do think that's what they want

the return of the big business aristocracy in the U.S.

By the time people wake up to what they have done, it will be too late.

[Nihil]

15. Not just in the US either ...

It's getting that way in the UK as well.

There was a flurry of genuine meritocracy in the 80s but that seems to
have been almost stamped out again in favour of plutocracy and the 'old
boy network'.

In a few years, there will be an educated, privileged class (from which
all senior positions are filled) and a pool of proles (spoon-fed with
their reality-TV, their soaps and their spectator sports). Any labour
jobs will be snapped up by the proles at minimum wages simply so they
can claw themselves out of the swamp for a short time. Transition from
one class to the other will be almost zero - it will be an "us & them"
situation that will make the Victorians look positively Utopian.

Nihil

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. It's all part of the scheme behind privatization.

Pretty soon, we'll all be indentured servants of the military or corporations.

[rockymountaindem]

5. Three words: University of Toronto.

I'm here at U of T in Canada, which I think is perhaps the most expensive school in Canada. For me (and since I'm not a Canadian citizen I pay about 4 times as much as everyone else) it's about 17 thousand Canadian dollars per year (about 15K US). That's less than the University of Colorado, and the education is way better. They call it the Canadian Ivy League.

Cost of living is way less too, when you come with American dollars. As a comparison for those of you who pay $3 or more for coffee at Starbucks, here an extra large is only about $1.25 US at Tim Horton's.

[Codeblue]

9. My thought on the education crisis

Since the Repubs have essentially taken control of our country, we've seen education funding dropping dramatically. My mom and I have thought that this is because of a return to the ideals of the middle ages.

In the middle ages, the serfs and other poor city dwellers had no means of gaining an education, so they could not question the things the government was doing. I feel that the Bushites wish this to happen in America. Everyone will be uneducated so the government can do whatever the hell it wants and us poor people will have no means to question them.

I don't feel like I should pay back my student loans either. As far as I can see, the government should be paying for my education anyway so why should I pay them back? I don't support the government, and I never will unless Repubs and Dems make the elections more fair. I don't feel obligated to give the government any of its money back.

[skooooo]

11. It started before Bush...

...it really wasn't too good during the CLinton years, but again, the Republicans controlled the Congress for much of that time too, I guess.

[uncertainty1999]

12. NY Times today: wealthy fill top colleges

Lack of affordability is a major crisis. I went to college in the early 90's, and my alumni magazine just said that 1 year's tuition and fees is over $6000 (at a land grant university). There goes access ....

Here are some snippet's from today's NY TIMES ----

As Wealthy Fill Top Colleges, New Efforts to Level the Field
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/education/22COLL.html

At prestigious universities around the country, from flagship state colleges to the Ivy League, more and more students from upper-income families are edging out those from the middle class, according to university data....

Over all, at the 42 most selective ***state universities,*** (my emphasis added) including the flagship campuses in California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and New York, 40 percent of this year's freshmen come from families making more than $100,000, up from about 32 percent in 1999, according to the Higher Education Research Institute. Nationwide, fewer than 20 percent of families make that much money...

"When most people think of a typical college student, they're thinking about eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and having massive debts," said Scott E. Mendy, a junior from Tigard, Ore., who receives financial aid. At Michigan, he said, "people live very well."

Summer jobs? Many undergraduates do not think twice about accepting an internship that barely covers their expenses. Many can afford to take spring break trips to Mexican resorts or Europe. Extracurricular activities often seem to be run by students who can devote dozens of hours to them each week without trying to hold down a campus job, said Angela Galardi, a senior who recently completed a term as president of the student government.

[prolesunited]

14. Thank you for posting this article

and welcome to DU. :hi:

I think the situation promises to get even worse.