Although quality of education is a concern, rightfully so with average American test scores being well below several other countries, I feel that the limited access to education is a more prudent issue. Continued education after high school should not be a privilege afforded to only those who come from money or those willing to take on the lifetime of crippling debt associated with student loans. In fact continued education should not be a privilege for anyone, it should be a right for everyone!
You can improve the quality of the education received and greatly help the students who can afford college, but what about those who can’t? What does this improvement mean to them? What does it do for them? The answer is nothing and so the question becomes, why should they care? It seems highly unlikely for anyone to happily pay higher taxes to improve an educational system they have been denied access too, and higher taxes are crucial in fixing our quality of education. If we can get them into the school, we can get them behind the school, and then wouldn’t they be more willing to support the school? Otherwise you’re just asking someone to buy and build a pool only their neighbor gets to swim in.
Unless you’re lucky enough, that’s right, lucky enough, to be uncomfortably poor you can expect no help from our government on a federal or state level. Even when you fall into the poverty level that qualifies you for financial aid you find yourself in a full sprint race against the rest of the underprivileged hoping to better their futures with school, if you lose this race you just lost your education! It’s depressing how easily this can happen. Three of my close friends as well as I, applied for financial aid this year. Out of the four of us only I was fortunate enough to be awarded any grant money, and out of the three of them only one was able to take on loans and go to school anyways. If half of these college hopefuls were unable to attend based purely on a lack of finance how many other people are sitting at home right now saying, “I just really wish I could afford to go to college.”? Regardless of the actual number the answer is too damn many! Any one person who is eager to learn and better them self should be granted a college education.
It’s about this point where you may find yourself asking is he going to ignore the fact that there are thousands of scholarship opportunities available to our bright and motivated up and comers? No, I can’t argue against this fact, and scholarships are an amazing source to pay that pesky college tuition. What I will point out is, yes there are thousands of scholarships, but there are millions of applicants. For every student hugging their parents with huge tears of joy in their eyes because they busted their ass and earned a full ride scholarship, there are at least four, who busted their ass just as hard, hugging their parents with huge tears of sorrow because now they have no idea how they are going to pay for school.
It seems very clear to me, that in order to improve the quality of education, we must first have universal education. College must first be an available step for everyone before everyone will care about raising the standards by which we are taught. Until then voters will continue to turn down tax increases, underfunded school will remain underfunded, and our quality of education will remain the same.
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