Spring Break
Fight for higher education
Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion
10/01/08 - Imagine living in a world where education was free. Imagine leaving high school and paying $800 for one application that will lead you to four years of higher education - no loans and no strings attached.
If you were living in Europe 10 years ago, chances are you would be taking advantage of those opportunities. Many universities were and still do offer free education to potential college students as long as they meet certain requirements. Even European schools that have crossed over to the popular land of tuition fees don't charge students more than $10,000 per year.
Fast forward to the present, and college tuitions in the United States are on the rise - some of them rising upward from $40,000 per year.
The University of Rhode Island is lucky enough to have not reached that mark, but with the mid-year tuition fees and an ever-worsening economic picture, it's hard not to ask: could public institutions have avoided this years ago if the United States had just done what Europe had done?
Both presidential candidates want to propose strategies now to make the application process for financial aid simpler and U.S. colleges more competitive with schools overseas.
In other words, U.S. schools are competing with schools overseas that are not only cheaper, but offer better curricula and teacher training.
Even if the United States offers education to more students than European schools do, at some point our education officials stretched themselves too thin. Colleges and universities have essentially backed themselves into a corner - to quote an education policy analyst from the R.I. House of Representatives Monday evening, "The only people with smiles on their faces right now is Wyoming."
It might be too late to make radical education reform. The price tag of higher education is something that's not only flushing Rhode Island schools down the economic toilet, but institutions nationwide, and the money's just not there.
But we must look to our national leaders and press our higher education officials to find more creative ways to keep students in school for reasonable tuition prices. It might be nice to only pay nominal fees for higher education, but students should realize the reality of the situation.
Simply put, all students, whether they be lower, middle or upper class, need some sort of relief, and institutions of higher education need to think about the long-term effects of their decisions.
If you were living in Europe 10 years ago, chances are you would be taking advantage of those opportunities. Many universities were and still do offer free education to potential college students as long as they meet certain requirements. Even European schools that have crossed over to the popular land of tuition fees don't charge students more than $10,000 per year.
Fast forward to the present, and college tuitions in the United States are on the rise - some of them rising upward from $40,000 per year.
The University of Rhode Island is lucky enough to have not reached that mark, but with the mid-year tuition fees and an ever-worsening economic picture, it's hard not to ask: could public institutions have avoided this years ago if the United States had just done what Europe had done?
Both presidential candidates want to propose strategies now to make the application process for financial aid simpler and U.S. colleges more competitive with schools overseas.
In other words, U.S. schools are competing with schools overseas that are not only cheaper, but offer better curricula and teacher training.
Even if the United States offers education to more students than European schools do, at some point our education officials stretched themselves too thin. Colleges and universities have essentially backed themselves into a corner - to quote an education policy analyst from the R.I. House of Representatives Monday evening, "The only people with smiles on their faces right now is Wyoming."
It might be too late to make radical education reform. The price tag of higher education is something that's not only flushing Rhode Island schools down the economic toilet, but institutions nationwide, and the money's just not there.
But we must look to our national leaders and press our higher education officials to find more creative ways to keep students in school for reasonable tuition prices. It might be nice to only pay nominal fees for higher education, but students should realize the reality of the situation.
Simply put, all students, whether they be lower, middle or upper class, need some sort of relief, and institutions of higher education need to think about the long-term effects of their decisions.
