Saturday, February 28, 2004
Where Are My Hand-Outs?
I'd like to see a lot more of this kind of behavior from all the over-priced status-heavy universities in the country. You know, like mine.
The price of higher education is ridiculous, as everyone knows, blah blah blah, but I think ideas like Harvard's will become more popular in the next few years as the middle class completely disappears while its values -- higher education chief among them -- persist, with the rich and the rest given joint custody. Kucinich is the only candidate advocating free education at public universities (what a novel idea!) but even Kerry has some sort of over-complicated plan to institute a Community Service Army that would entitle its participants to cheap schooling (as long as it doesn't have the stench of SOCIALISM, America will support the social programs it claims it despises). What this will lead to, of course, is a situation where the un-subsidized private Universities become finishing schools for the rich and the public ones technical schools for the masses.
Which is an extension of the current system, so I don't know what all the complaining's about.
Last night, I went uptown and saw the Columbia campus for the first time (I know, I know -- but honestly, I've yet to have any reason at all to go higher than 96th St.). Walking around the gated, isolated grounds, with the big columns and stone palaces, I was appalled at the disconnectedness and insulation of it all. It was then pointed out that my school charges $26,000 more in yearly tuition. They may have the artifice, but we've got the put-on Bohemia. |
The price of higher education is ridiculous, as everyone knows, blah blah blah, but I think ideas like Harvard's will become more popular in the next few years as the middle class completely disappears while its values -- higher education chief among them -- persist, with the rich and the rest given joint custody. Kucinich is the only candidate advocating free education at public universities (what a novel idea!) but even Kerry has some sort of over-complicated plan to institute a Community Service Army that would entitle its participants to cheap schooling (as long as it doesn't have the stench of SOCIALISM, America will support the social programs it claims it despises). What this will lead to, of course, is a situation where the un-subsidized private Universities become finishing schools for the rich and the public ones technical schools for the masses.
Which is an extension of the current system, so I don't know what all the complaining's about.
Last night, I went uptown and saw the Columbia campus for the first time (I know, I know -- but honestly, I've yet to have any reason at all to go higher than 96th St.). Walking around the gated, isolated grounds, with the big columns and stone palaces, I was appalled at the disconnectedness and insulation of it all. It was then pointed out that my school charges $26,000 more in yearly tuition. They may have the artifice, but we've got the put-on Bohemia. |
