This is my first submission. Some thoughts I put together on education and the value of government assistance to education, based on my personal experience.
There has always been a lot of discussion about eliminating certain government agencies and certain forms of government aid. Much of the argument comes from Conservatives who would like to see taxes lowered and less government “interference” so that the “free market” can work “effectively”. As we all know, the unending debate between Conservatives and Liberals about how much government is “too much” government has gone on since there have been Conservatives and Liberals. The never ending debate has gotten more and more heated over my lifetime, to the point where it is moving from a discussion to reality. Threats are being made and actions are occurring, at this moment, where government agencies are either being eliminated, or their budgets are cut to the point that they are ineffective.
I sat down and thought about a personal example where government spending helped me, not the obvious examples like infrastructure, food and water safety, police and fire protection, etc. You know? The things we all use every day, no matter if we are Conservative or Liberal. I would like to present a personal example, which I think is an argument for keeping government agencies and aid, specifically student aid, alive, and how this benefits the middle to lower class.
I went to a public university on Stafford Loans and Pell Grants for my undergraduate education, BS in Physics. The government loans paid for my tuition, books, and maybe a little extra. To pay rent, food, etc. I worked one, sometimes two, sometimes three jobs. Two of the jobs that I had were in the Physics’ Department, as an undergrad research assistant, and as a grader and someone who setup Physics’ labs for lower level classes. My salary for those jobs came from government funds, because I was working for a public university. My freshman year I did not work, and lived off the little bit of money my parents socked away for me, my dad gave me a little money every month, basically he was nice enough to continue the child support he was giving my mom and gave it directly to me. My parents did give me money at times if I was short and asked for it. Anyway, I was an undergrad for 5 years, so 4 years of those years were on my own, more or less. So, to get through undergrad, it required government assistance in the form of loans, and jobs that were paid from government funds. In addition, I worked two years in grocery store as a bagger and stocker. I was able to quit the grocery store job when a summer internship turned into a part-time job during the school year. That job was at technology based company in their computer chip “fab”. I also worked for a summer as a temp employee at a printed circuit board facility, along with still staying on the job at the grocery store. The grocery store job and the Physic’s Department work all paid about minimum wage, which at the time was about $5.15 or so an hour (between 1993-1997), I believe I received the occasional raise. I never made much more than $5.50 at any of the work that I did. I think the temp job over the summer paid about 7 bucks an hour and the internship paid about the same.
I graduated with my undergrad in Physics, and I could have possibly gotten a job with a salary somewhere in the low to mid 30,000s. I would have graduated with some credit card debt plus my federal student loan debt. Instead, I applied to graduate school, and was offered fellowships at Northwestern in Electrical Engineering and at UW-Madison in Materials Science. I accepted the fellowship at Madison. The fellowship paid for my tuition, to the public university, and a monthly stipend. As long as kept up my grades and did research, I would receive the tuition and stipend. The stipend more or less paid for everything I required. At times I did live beyond my means, stupidly, so I accrued more credit card debit in grad school. The money for the fellowship came from government grants to the university, specifically from the DoD and the DoE. So, without the DoE, and the DoD, I would not have been able to attend graduate school, at least not without incurring a lot more debt.
When I graduated from grad school, with a Masters in Materials Science, I obtained a job and my salary was about 75-90% more than what I would have made had I gotten a job with only my undergraduate degree. While I was in graduate school, my federal student loans were deferred until about a month before I graduated from grad school. I repaid all my student loans within the time period allotted. I believe it was 2 years for the Pell Grants and 10 years for the Stafford Loans.
Going to grad school raised my base salary higher than had I not gone to grad school. Now, I could have graduated from high school and gone directly to work, or I could have gone to a two year school and gotten a job, instead of going to school for 8 years, I could have worked those 8 years. I am guessing that it did not take long out of grad school for me to make more money than had I not gone to school. The extra money I make, resulting from a higher level of education and being a hard worker, allows me to spend more money, pay more taxes, pay off my credit card debit, and pay back my student loans, all things that help me contribute to the economy and society. I believe in 2010 I paid more state, federal, and Social Security tax than I received in one year of stipend and tuition in grad school, while still taking home more money than I have ever made.
I would be willing to say that most people who went to a technical school, and/or a public or private university had some assistance from the government in some manner.