This is definitely not a call to discourage individuals from seeking a higher education, but rather… this is a call to all individuals that would like to look at both the economic perspective of public education, along with those that are wanting to focus upon the quality of education that individuals receive from both private and public colleges.
A recent report by congress is making headlines by focusing in on for-profit universities and how they are possibly placing profits before education… now, while this is more than likely true on the side of ‘For-Profit University’ systems, as a former student of the Public University System, I can see inherent similarities in the way that public universities do just the same.
While it is notable that for-profit institutions can both take advantage of individuals that have such benefits to their education such as the G.I. Bill, it must be noted that public institutions themselves have moved toward a more corporate-minded approach themselves. While this report states that G.I. Bill recipients, along with the average student, are at risk of being over-charged for a sub-par education in a private school, they fail to notice that more often than not, private schools themselves are not, in themselves, an affordable option for the majority of those seeking a higher education.
When it comes to the education itself that is recieved at a public university, and the meshed-in corporate structure that serves the public university system, it is no coincidence that the public university student is at the same risk as a private university student when it comes to being taken advantage of financially -not to mention the fact that most grants for schooling are federal. This trend of sub-par education and corporate-mindedness will eventually take it’s toll on our already failing economy.
The critique of how private universities are taking advantage of public funding is not only correct, but also true to the public university structure. If it isn’t apparent that the American way of life is focused primarily upon capitalism, it should be noted that not only have we become mindless zombies of corporate advertising, but that this is also true of the public educational institution.
Public universities not only contracts with Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Papa Johns, TCF Bank, U.S. Bancorp, and multiple foodservices such as Aramark & Sysco, but they also maintain a focus upon merchandising the school and it’s teams.
When the senate begins to stir up claims that private institutions have taken advantage of the government itself, we must also examine the possibility that the public system itself is in competition with that private system. They too survive in the same capitalist-driven environment. So this brings forth the question, how is this sub-par, capitalist-driven, education benefiting our society today? What are the student’s of today given after achieving a degree in the American workforce?
The answers, unpleasingly, are simple… competition for jobs is high and many of those that have either graduated with a degree or maintained some sort of focus in education are simply allowing themselves to work for nothing or are outside of their preferred specification. This is being done, in part, for the sake of survival.
While we, as individuals, go into the collegiate system with the hopes of achieving success within our preferred fields, we are constantly met with struggles to achieve financial dependence within the collegiate lifestyle, and the ability to balance education between survival itself. Once an individual is overwhelmed with survival in itself, they become burdened with not only the debt of survival, but also the debt of their seemingly useless education.
This debt, that many of us are struggling to overcome, is almost fallibly in the hands of the government itself, and while the collegiate system is working within our sponsorship-and-branded society, those that default on their loans may end up unintentionally bankrupting the already overwhelmed system that governs us. This, in itself, is how the higher education system fails us all, regardless of whether it is a public or private university.
As depressing as this news may be, people are waking up! In Canada, for instance, students are standing up against carrying the burden of student loans that they built up whilst receiving a lack-luster education. We are on the brink of, at the least, a student revolution in North America… whether or not the awakening of those in Canada will drift towards those in the United States, it seems that a global awakening of some sorts is happening. The more we continue to voice our opinions, the louder we will become as we unify into one united front.
Thus is our focus here at Paper Revolution, to document and inspire those that are becoming awakened.
What are your feelings on both public and private educational institutions in America or your country?
