US education: the elephant in the room
Jun. 5th, 2019 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporterCollege tuition continues to rise every year. America's young adults are faced with the choice of going to college and risking accumulating a crushing debt for possibly decades, and living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of their lives not earning near as much without a degree.
While there is definitely something to be said for alternative solutions like trade schools (those tend to put kids into debt as well because they are not cheap), the American society still needs to address the underlying problem. People complain about the intelligence of the average person. They complain about how no one fact-checks anything, and how easily the public falls for fake news. And yet, education in the US is treated as a privilege for the rich...
Education should be something we WANT everyone to have access to.
America also needs to quit thinking of education as something for kids, teens, and young adults. Modern society has evolved into one where constant learning is needed. It makes investing into education that much more important. For example, the Silicone Valley, which has been a big driver of economic growth, grew in part because of being near great colleges. So you can see why the US needs to invest in its public education systems now more than ever before. Otherwise it will keep lagging behind other nations, with dire long-term consequences for its global standing in terms of science, knowledge, innovation, the economy, and ultimately, people's prosperity.
While there is definitely something to be said for alternative solutions like trade schools (those tend to put kids into debt as well because they are not cheap), the American society still needs to address the underlying problem. People complain about the intelligence of the average person. They complain about how no one fact-checks anything, and how easily the public falls for fake news. And yet, education in the US is treated as a privilege for the rich...
Education should be something we WANT everyone to have access to.
America also needs to quit thinking of education as something for kids, teens, and young adults. Modern society has evolved into one where constant learning is needed. It makes investing into education that much more important. For example, the Silicone Valley, which has been a big driver of economic growth, grew in part because of being near great colleges. So you can see why the US needs to invest in its public education systems now more than ever before. Otherwise it will keep lagging behind other nations, with dire long-term consequences for its global standing in terms of science, knowledge, innovation, the economy, and ultimately, people's prosperity.
