It can all be fixed, but so far nobody has the political will to do so. It will take a major education crash for it to happen, and even then I see just patches instead of actual reimagination of the system.
Posted by: Elok
« on: June 15, 2016, 12:13:29 PM »
You could get the same thing by hiring some official to certify your parents' profession, incomes, neighborhood and the like, at a fraction of the cost. Of course here I'm speaking mainly of the vast body of degrees--liberal arts, social sciences--that don't have a solid profession waiting for them. I think college would work beautifully if it were restricted to people seeking careers which actually require years of study, such as medicine. Then you'd only have the problem of too many people trying to get into prestigious but flooded occupations (like law). The rest of us could go to vocational schools, community colleges, or the equivalent, and save a great deal of time and money without subsidizing dance clubs and sports teams and tenured professors of Queer Theory.
Somehow I have concerns about making college free, or saying it is a right, especially if an academic is the one recommending it. In the same way that I mistrust doctors suggesting free universal healthcare, or GM saying free cars to every adult. Why? Because if they wanted to give away their goods and services for free they can do that already.
The position of most instructors remains that of the administration's arm in the classroom with some flexibility in higher education. The instructors provide students with both instruction and social connections into the business world.Somehow I have concerns about making college free, or saying it is a right, especially if an academic is the one recommending it. In the same way that I mistrust doctors suggesting free universal healthcare, or GM saying free cars to every adult. Why? Because if they wanted to give away their goods and services for free they can do that already.
Teaching is not the service most academics think they're providing. ;)
National SDS Demands Education for All
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Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has decided to engage in a new national campaign, demanding education for all! A place where students of all genders, races, sexual and romantic orientations, etc. are supposed to attend for higher education, the U.S. University system grows ever more exclusionary via individual university policies and policies made by the state, which enable them. These academic institutions would not exist if it weren’t for students, yet they continuously fail to meet the needs of the population they were created to serve. This is why we are demanding education for all; it’s time for schools to listen to the students’ voices and work in our interest.
Public universities all over the country engage in restructuring and molding university policy in order to sustain profit growth. This manifests in tuition hikes and budget cuts. And the money and resources students lose to these policies go into the pockets of rich administrators that supposedly work in the student body’s interests.
Many schools also practice legacy - affirmative action for the rich alumni - or base admissions on racist testing, while they continuously reexamine whether affirmative action should be enabled for African American students, whose enrollment has dropped over the years.
We believe education is a right, not a privilege, and this right extends to everyone. This is why SDS has decided to embark on this new campaign, local in practice and national in scope. We demand that tuition is free for all students. We will not be victims of the privatization of our schools, forcing us into years of crippling debt that we cannot pay off. We demand that our schools practice increased enrollment and retention of non-white students. We will not allow students of color to be barred from colleges and universities. We demand that our schools provide equal access to undocumented students. Undocumented people should be afforded the same ability as documented people to access higher education.
It is in light of the aforementioned conditions that Students for a Democratic Society has taken up the Education For All campaign nationally. On several campuses we have already forced administrations to meet our demands, or are currently struggling to do so. SDS chapters in Florida won a vital victory in their statewide struggle for tuition equity. FSU Students for a Democratic Society is now fighting to maintain affirmative action on their campus. SDS chapters in North Carolina are currently fighting to repeal the transphobic HB2 that was passed, upholding the struggle for gender neutral bathrooms. Milwaukee SDS’ current campaign is to “Chop From the Top” which would redirect budget cuts from important educational resources to their administrators’ pay checks. SDS in Salt Lake City, Utah, is struggling to gain tuition equity for undocumented students. Amongst many other efforts. National SDS invites other organizations to join us, as we march forward to ensure a University system that supports the students, and not the other way around; for a University system that is dedicated to education for all!
I believe Mr. Sanders did - Don't blame me; I voted for him.I should have inserted a qualifier for the fact that none of the current candidates for the political parties hold a position on the higher education debt problem. I apologize for the miscommunication.
I believe Mr. Sanders did - Don't blame me; I voted for him.I should have inserted a qualifier for the fact that none of the current candidates for the political parties hold a position on the higher education debt problem. I apologize for the miscommunication.