Millions of parents send their kids off to school five days a week to school and repeat this process for thirteen years. The entire endeavor is ingrained in our national culture and it has become something of a cultural ritual. It’s not a question of cost. It’s not a question of wealth. It’s not a question of status. It’s merely a right that we expect for our children in this nation.
Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free college is premised on the idea that the complexity and scope of the problems facing our nation require an educated people. Bernie Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free college is premised on the idea that it is a right of every citizen to be able to endeavor to on expanding not only their knowledge but the knowledge of the population as a whole. Bernie Sanders’ proposal for tuition-free college is premised on the idea that democracy is strengthened with an education population.
When Secretary Hillary Clinton argues that rich kids shouldn’t be able to go to a public college tuition-free, she is implicitly arguing that she doesn’t believe a college education is a right. She is arguing that the continuation of education through college is something separate from K-12 education, something that should remain a kind of privilege.
This is a grave mistake given the realities of the world people live in. People are living in times that challenge the best minds, as is, with increasingly disastrous results. Climate Change is running unchecked, still, despite accords and promises made by many captains of industry and government leaders. Technology continues to disrupt lives and ways of living without a shred of thought given to how these changes can leave people vulnerable to identity theft and fraud without adequate protection from being preyed upon digitally. Predatory capitalism continues to destroy families, communities, nations, and the planet in peril in the name of greed.
These grave realities will challenge not only the United States of America, but the entire human species, and the solutions and methods of coping will require feats of engineering, understanding, knowledge, and wisdom, perhaps at heights unheard of in today’s times. Either the US will lead that effort or will be scorned for their contributions to the problems but lack of leadership and know-how in solving those problems.
Tuition-free college is just one step in getting a more educated people. Education is a right and needs to be recognized as a right just as K-12 education is. We have matured enough as a nation and as people to embrace this idea now. If there is a disagreement about higher education being a right I am all ears but don’t insult the intelligence of the American people by arguing that it wouldn’t be fair for rich kids to get tuition-free college. A college education should be separated from being merely an instrument towards economic productivity and be embraced as a way to expand the potential of the nation.
I’ll leave with Thomas Jefferson’s words:
We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
