July 26, 2017

How to reframe our college system

Yes Magazine - If the United States is looking for alternatives to what some would call a failing funding model for college affordability, the solution may lie in looking further back than the current system, which has been in place since the 1930s.

Tuition-free education can only be realized if college education is again reframed as a public good.

In the 19th century, communities and the state would foot the bill for college tuition because students were contributing to society. They served the common good by teaching high school for a certain number of years or by taking leadership positions within local communities. A few marginal programs with similar missions (ROTC and Teach for America) still exist, but students participating in these programs are very much in the minority.

Instead, higher education today seems to be about what college can do for you. It’s not about what college students can do for society.

Tuition-free education can only be realized if college education is again reframed as a public good. For this, students, communities, donors and politicians would have to enter into a new social contract that exchanges tuition-free education for public services.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The leadership of the USA is not interested in making college affordable for the common man.

Quality education there is for the offspring of the ruling class and their minions.

A well educated proletariat can only mean trouble for the US capitalist ruling class. That's the reason for the shameful dumbing-down process we see in progress.

The badly educated are more easily led by corrupt leaders spouting idiocies.