The Price of Collage

The Price of Collage

  Collage remains one of the most important educational steps to achieving a higher job, higher pay and even a better lifestyle. Its all true, we as Americans value education, or do we? But, have you ever sat down and said "Jee, how come people in other parts of the world get education free of charge and I am stuck here paying hundreds of dollars?". College tuition costs are one of the main problems for students in the United States. Unlike European and Asian countries learning comes at high price, in a country where learning is valued as number one, education should be free for all to obtain. 

What is collage tuition, essentially it is what collages charge you to attend classes within it. Lets say you wanted take a math class, you would pay however much the class costs. This money would mostly go to the collage itself to purchase new equipment and etc, but, why is collage in Europe and Asia free? Abby Jackson of the Business Insider states "Many European countries, like Germany, already offer free college, and they do so for all students regardless of family income level." (Jackson para. 3). So then why does American not give its citizens free education, Abby Jackson further states, "Europe also traditionally has higher taxes than the US, which allows those countries to offer additional social services." (Jackson para. 6). This shows that the US would have a lower tax rate than Europe which means that the government would have less money to allocate, including education. 

Low funding of the education system can also play a part which would could explain why prices are so high. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities state, "Arizona, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Oklahoma — enacted income tax rate cuts costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars each year rather than restore education funding." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities para. 3). This shows that individual states control the funding of schools causing low funding. How would we fix this, Americans would have to receive higher tax rates with states allocating that money to education. But, are we are ok with sacrificing more of our pay to receive better benefits and make collage free? Although some overlook education, education would need to become a priority as it is in some countries with this we could all enjoy education free of charge. 

  

  

Segregation of the Education System

  From the 1950s all the way to the 1960s most schools within the education system faced segregation. This was mostly due to the creation of the Jim Crow laws in the 50s which limited the education of the colored or "Non-White" population. This became a major problem as African Americans, Mexicans/Hispanics and people of other decent could not gain an education to live a successful life in america. Primarily, African Americans would be separated from their white counterparts within a school, eating in a separate lunch room, going to separate bathrooms and in most cases siting at the back of a school bus. Most would have thought with the abolishing of slavery we would have been more accepting of colored people in schools as they too are American Citizens, this was proven wrong during that time.

  In schools, Colored students had to be taught by colored teachers with the teachers having low education themselves. Colored students could not even sit in the same table as whites during lunch or relaxation time. Most Colored Students were forced use second hand supply's due to the low income of family's. Most politicians and school boards argued that the current system was "Good the way it is" with most of the southern states agreeing to this. So what actions did the colored community take against this educational system? It was fought in a court case "Brown V Board of Education of Topeka" in 1954 which led to the Supreme Court giving the verdict of segregation in schools being unconstitutional. 

 How much has changed in our time, do we still face segregation within our own schools or discrimination? Yes, there are some cases as an article by Richard Rothstein explains "Today, many black children still attend schools in racially and economically isolated neighborhoods, while their families still reside in lonely islands of poverty:". Now you must ask yourself, are ani-discrimination/segregation's laws that effective within schools today? It all starts with the people, we can all make a change, we just have to learn to be more accepting.