Our Educational Mess
With a child starting college next fall, and another the following fall, I read with conflicting emotions that the Fairfield (CT) Country Day School Parents Association is raffling off for $100 a chance, $100,000 in tuition—to be applied to any accredited school of one’s choosing. Admittedly, I am very tempted to plunk down a C-note to be eligible for the (at least) 1200-to-1-shot prize. But I am also reminded of the sad state education is in when a college degree is becoming so unattainable for so many, you have to win a lottery to get one. And while it may be a lucrative idea for a fundraiser, it’s not unlike tossing a tiny scrap of raw meat to a pack of ravenous wolves. What next? Anyone interested in taking a chance on a kidney transplant?
The educational system in this country is bizarre. From kindergarten through 12th grade it embraces, molds and coddles you, every penny spent fiercely debated, every learning program painstakingly developed and ministered. Then, come graduation from high school, it drops you like a rock. You’re on your own, pal. That all-important higher education—the one that will make a huge difference in the quality of your life, not to mention the future of your country—is given the cold shoulder by government. As a result, especially in this economic climate, colleges are courting the wealthy and privileged. And the ones who aren’t? Well, universities and their parasite banking partners are only too happy to saddle students with crippling debt it will take half a lifetime to repay. One college recently offered us a loan package carrying an interest rate of 8-1/2%. How magnanimous of them! They could easily offer loans at half that rate and still make money. But that might put a crimp in the lavish lifestyles of university presidents.
College tuition, at the very least, should be tax deductible. (The new $2500 college tax credit is laughable in light of the ever escalating tuition increases that will swallow it up.) If people can deduct mortgage interest on vacation homes, they certainly should be allowed to deduct the cost of educating their kids. Which is the better investment anyway, for all of us? Instead, families must struggle to put together a ridiculously complex financial patchwork of grants, student loans, savings, second mortgages, and sheer begging every year just to keep students on campus.
Ideally, as with elementary school, middle school and high school, a college education should be made available to all who want one, and are academically qualified. Many, of course, will scream “socialism” (even those who collect Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance benefits). But if a smarter, more innovative and educated society will be the result of it…for god sakes, socialize me.
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