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Monday, Dec. 31, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
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About 1,000 students from high schools throughout Southern Nevada participated in the 56th annual Sun Youth Forum on Nov. 20. The students were divided into groups to discuss a variety of topics. A representative was chosen from each group to write a column about the students’ findings. Samuel Yoon of Advanced Technologies Academy writes about issues covered by his group, America.
“I don’t want to work until I’m 80 to send you to college,” my mom said. There is no doubt that education, especially higher education, in America finds itself in serious trouble.
Between 2009 and 2010, students were horrified to see a 112 percent hike in the cost of tuition for bachelor’s degrees. For many students, pursuing higher education is akin to taking out a mortgage.
In America, education has shifted from being a publicly funded good to a privately acquired commodity. It has been a nationwide challenge of mind-boggling proportions.
Politicians promise it, and our economy prays for it. Consensus is a coveted word in the modern American political lexicon. On Nov. 20, some high school students attending the Sun Youth Forum found the consensus that has been eluding our nation’s leaders. Students with ideas as diverse as their backgrounds wholeheartedly embraced the great American phrase “I think we can agree on that.”
Tomorrow’s policymakers came together to propose answers to some of the nation’s most serious questions, ranging from alternative energy to foreign policy.
However, one idea consistently appeared as the issue closest to the hearts and minds of the nation’s future leaders: Education should be among the top of America’s priorities. All in favor? Aye.
Make no mistake: Education determines the very future of our country. Among the hot-button topics in the political arena, none has a longer-lasting, socioeconomic effect than education, and it is no surprise why. A person’s education determines lifetime earning potential and the taxes that an individual pays over the course of his lifetime.
Education affects the number of people who depend on welfare, the number of incarcerated people and the number of people who live below the poverty line in America. An investment in education is investment in the future of the United States and its status as an international superpower.
Education needs funding and restructuring. Horror stories about people who are still paying student loans well into their 50s are told around the college campfire.
It is a scary thought that support for education could be slashed further despite the already abysmally high median student loan debt of $17,040 for undergraduate students.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, enrollment in colleges and universities in the United States has increased 37 percent from 2000 to 2010.
However, the budget proposed by President Barack Obama in 2011 would have cut $89 billion from higher education grants over 10 years. In a modern economy, higher education is more important than ever, and funding for programs such as Pell Grants for Americans aspiring to something more secures future prosperity in uncertain times.
From reducing the need for welfare programs to raising the number of middle-class Americans, the American dream starts with the education of our nation’s future. Representing the leaders of the Sun Youth Forum who in turn represent their respective schools, I urge our nation’s leaders to come to a consensus about education.
At the end of the day, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, free-thinkers and traditionalists can agree on one thing: America’s next generation of innovators, thinkers and leaders is already here.
Let’s ensure that the next generation of health care professionals can afford the price of medical school. Let’s promise tomorrow’s entrepreneurs affordable admission to the business school of their dreams. Let’s make sure our future policymakers can get an education without breaking the bank. Let’s give America a great head start.
That’s something we can all agree on.
"Let's make sure our future policymakers can get an education without breaking the bank" - Samuel Yoon
Nice letter Samuel. We support education but realize that education costs are out of control. There are ways to cut college costs. I went to a community college my first two years then to the University of Texas my last two years.
Community colleges are a cost saver to those on a budget.
I noticed this article Sam a few weeks ago titled "Stephen Trachtenberg Is Not Sorry". He is the ex-president of George Washington University. This is an interesting perspective on why tuition costs have increased so dramatically over the years at some universities.
Here is an excerpt:
"Since Trachtenberg took over in 1988, he had boosted the school's endowment from $250 million to $1 billion and built many state-of-the-art facilities, such as computer and research labs. The profusion of comforts didn't just stimulate students' minds; it also fulfilled their every whim--a change that drew a more selective, more intelligent group of applicants and sent the admission rate plummeting from 75% to 37%. "It was a very soothing, very beautiful experience and gave me a great sense of satisfaction about my tenure as president," Trachtenberg wrote in his memoir, Big Man on Campus.
Trachtenberg's students funded this triumph. When he became president, they paid $25,000 (in today's dollars) in tuition, room, and board to attend; by the time he retired, they paid $51,000.
Trachtenberg made George Washington the most expensive school in the nation. The burst of cash powered his agenda, but the freshmen who borrowed to enroll--46 percent of the class--during his final year graduated with an average of $28,000 of debt.
Trachtenberg also set a trend that other colleges--first his private competitors, then universities across the country--felt compelled to follow. Today, George Washington is only the 21st most expensive school, and the average American student accumulates $24,300 of debt earning her diploma. Collectively, Americans hold more student-loan debt than credit-card debt, and graduates enter a world where more than half of them are jobless or underemployed.
A recession requires austerity, and Trachtenberg concedes that the charge-more/spend-more model cannot continue in today's economy. "I don't think the current model can go on," he says, pointing out that schools can't spend when their cash reserves run low."
Samuel, the university leaders need to ensure education costs are affordable to family budgets.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/features/...