“To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.”
——-Thomas Jefferson
The longer I live in the U.S., the more often I’m being asked about my affordability. From buying a car to paying a housing mortgage, from deciding college schooling to enrolling in a health care program, for a majority of middle class Americans, every economical aspect of our life involves this crucial question: Can you afford it?
I had the opportunity to discuss this question with a couple of Europeans who enjoy universal health care and government-subsidized college education in their home countries. My complaint to them is that the affordability of university education in the US gets a bit out of hand, not to mention the medical insurance scheme in this country.
I’m in the midst of researching a graduate program for myself. Although this is only a peripheral online search, tuition for a non-specific graduate program ranges from US$25,000 up; for programs catering for full-time working candidates, tuition for some popular subjects, such as business, law, biotech, information technology, can reach close to half a million USD. I’ve spoken to several octogenarians in America; in their time as a youngster, college education cost in the US wasn’t as expensive as today. It was affordable.
Tertiary tuition is affordable in France, as is in Poland.
Tertiary tuition is affordable in China; but not in the United States.
Lots of undergraduate students in America are debt-stricken. Their heavy student loans have held them back from becoming homeowners, getting married and starting a family. This situation may happen in China but it is not as dire as in America. I have to work a few years in the US to scrimp and save for my graduate study. But I see college tuition in America is increasing annually just like the housing market in China. No way can I catch up if my salary does not increase proportionally. Let alone for poor families in America who cannot afford food and housing. Education is luxury to them.
It is no surprise that universities in America love foreign students, in particular those who can pay out-of-state tuition in full. I can’t help asking—Doesn’t the acceptance of the haves and the fortunate in college deprive of the chances of the have-nots and the unfortunate? Has American tertiary education become accessible only to those who can afford it? Wouldn’t it against our Founding Father Thomas Jefferson’s advocacy for free public education?
In fact, I doubt President Jefferson’s idea about the supervision of public education. He believed it should be supervised by “those most interested in its conduct” but not the government. Different from China whose education system is government-backed, the business model of tertiary education in America is capital-driven, and is with as little interference from the government as possible.
Perhaps that explains why tuition in American universities is only going up to keep them running like companies, by feeding the best human brains and mechanic minds.
But when is enough is enough? How much should tuition be set to be affordable for the general public as well as to satisfy the insatiable education providers? Besides ramping up tuition, can alum donation, grant funding and local taxes be enough to keep an institute running?
It’s rare to see college teachers on strike over a pay raise. Perhaps it’s time for them to look to their peers in public secondary schools, who continue to give the affordable education to American youths, despite their low pay. President Jefferson once said, “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” It’s about time to invest affordable education.
If China can, the U.S. should not be far behind.
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