#IfTuitionRises: Itll continue a decades long reversal of public universities being for the publics theyre situated in. A return to the days when University education was for the rich, wealthy, & well connected - all code words, at that point, for White folks. Are we really closing our educational doors again, America? The populist movement helped win access to universities for the average White citizen. Though it was a White rights movement, in general, coupled with civil rights actions it meant the opening of the university to students of color and the establishment of the public university systems, including the University of California (Go Aggies!). Weve lost track of our direction, America, forfeited control to corporate interests in the guise of the Board of Regents (thank you, Governors of CA), and ignored the fact that education is beyond critical to society. Education, including higher education, needs to be codified as a public infrastructure necessity, not an option for those with the money or the ability to take on debt. The crisis of the university and, indeed, the crises inside our universities (of the humanities, arts, and social sciences), resulting in what has been aptly called the creation of islands of academic affluence within our historically hallowed halls, is in actuality a crisis of national and state leadership, a failure of local and state politicians, and an acquiescence of the citizenry to those who know better. We know better. These are our schools. These are our communities. This is our future. We have allowed our universities to be turned into profit centers, regulated according to bottom lines, monetized beyond recognition. Its time for the nation to rise up in a new educational civil rights movement to demand free/subsidized education for all and the eradication of corporate governance/influence over our compromised and spineless, money grubbing administrations. We have little precious time to remedy this situation before were priced out of access to education, before were frozen out of the future, before we return to a system of education for the rich, wealthy, and well connected. This is what we face #IfTuitionRises Johnathen D. UC Davis Class of 2011
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:18:26 +0000
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