Rodrigo Albornoz
Prof. Gordon.
WSC 001
11/17/2014
College Or Costllege?
What do you think should raise more, inflation or college tuition? History has shown that the cost to study in US colleges raises faster than the US inflation (Lorin). Why is this happening? Or even worse, why would the system support such incongruence? This could be because the high education level offered requires such high prices, or maybe, it is a way to improve the economy by teaching society that there is no better investment than education. Anyway, let’s try to discover the answer by delving in these two different aspects that, in fact, are the main reasons of education on society: To support the learning and improve the economy.
Thinking and researching about our first point we find that it is fact that European academies have an excellent academic system, and we also find that Germany is offering free education to Americans and other international students without requiring “scholarships” (“German Colleges”). Perhaps the US education is perfect, and so, even better that German education? According to Paulo Freire, that is not the answer either. In Paulo Freire’s essay, he describes an important weakness in the American academic system. Freire refers to the “Banking Concept” as a symbolism of what is really happening between some students and professors. Students are described as a bank account to deposit information. As students never think critically about what is learned, they just assimilate. As said by Freire, “… which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filling, and storing the deposits” (Freire). From this idea, Freire believes that students really are not learning and gaining true knowledge, but are just memorizing whatever their teachers are telling them. Honestly, I cannot ascertain this is not happening with German students; however, it is just a way to show that such high tuition cost is not equal to that called “perfect education” advertised in the United States. It is also important to add that, like Germany, the United States has an academic system that satisfies the most elitist worldwide standards. In comparing the US academic system with others high rated academic systems, we find that such cost is not to keep the high pedagogic level of the country. So the question still remains: Why does the United States of America, one of the most powerful countries in the world, insist on requiring such high prices to study in universities? Why? If, in fact, history shows that this is a potential risk to society. The overall number of university students getting the diploma decreased by 1.5 % last year because of the remarkable difficulties to afford the complete process (“College enrollment”). There is no way to help society by decreasing the number of professionals in it. Now is clearer that “To improve learning” is not an answer to our question. Let’s see if we can solve this “mystery” by analyzing possible advantages in the economic behavior.
Perhaps by increasing tuition prices parents are required to save money during long terms of life. Therefore, as the money is provided to banks, the financial backing of the country gets stronger. Even saving money throughout twenty years, most of American families do not save the required quantity to afford a four-year college career (Kingkade). Besides, what about those parents with more than one child? If parents do not have a diploma as support to get a representative salary, their children have low probabilities to finish their college career. Therefore, this establishes a chain that is hard to break by the next generation whether the country preserves those unachievable tuition costs. This is when banks propose their “ideal solution”: student loans. The complexity of the student-loan system makes it difficult to know exactly how much debt is held by dropouts, but the