“In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education,” President Obama said in his 2010 State of the Union Address. A public university is so named because the benefits of higher education not only better the individual student, but better society as a whole as well. Through public research that influences social change, civic education and promoting ‘public good,’ public universities benefit society as well as students.
Part of the shared value higher education creates for all is the ‘engine of social change’ described on page 9 of Lagemann and Lewis’ What is College For? This ‘engine’ of people that become more productive because of a college education spur innovation and invention, and become, “repositories of culture as well as sources for cultural creativity,” Lagemann and Lewis, 9. This is the ‘public’ benefit that higher education provides all people, not just those who received the schooling or training. When that public benefit beings to disappear, however, one begins to question the value of supporting higher education with public funds—taxes.
A big difference between private and public colleges and universities is that taxes are used to support a public school, called a public charge, while private schools are not supported by the government. Many times, the goals of a public and private university are similar; however there must be some community gain from a public school, while a private school need not provide any public benefit. This could allow for a slower, more open movement in a private school setting not mandated by public need, while public institutions are often fast-paced, large and focused. While there are advantages to focusing on a narrower range of ideas and goa...
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...hy was pushed out of the scientific atmosphere, leading to a separation of how science could be used to approach social issues and citizen’s responsibility to those problems.
Though public universities exist to promote the common good and improve all citizens’ lives, many people feel that the benefits of public higher education have been decreasing. Specifically, the goal of civic education in the college and university setting has all but nearly disappeared, and that has caused people to rethink the value of public funding of colleges and universities. However people may feel, there is no doubt that the value universities create in the areas of scientific research and innovation is unmatched by any other institution. This obligation to provide significant value to the public as a whole has not diminished over the history of public higher education, but instead
The article, The Value of Higher Education Made Literal by scholar Stanley Fish focuses on sharing his opinion of higher education and what it has become in recent years. Mr. Fish’s argument is essentially over the “logic of privatization” where students are pictured as “investors” or “consumers” in courses of study that maximize successful employment outcomes. He also believes arts, humanities, and social sciences are overlooked while study courses in science, technology, and clinical medicine are prioritized. Fish also strongly believes the value of higher education has changed due to the desires of students over time, desires of becoming extremely financially secure enough to buy more than needed to justify years of money and hard work applied when in school.
College is a wonderful experience that only a few get to expose to. Any four year university offers a great opportunity for anyone; either for the diverse rich culture college campuses offer, or the hundreds of organizations and the thousands of connections that can offer one person. In the real world today a college degree is almost “required” for any career or a good stable job. Few necessities in America are cheap or free. For example: water, health insurance, and welfare are just to name a few. Public education is on this list of free necessities in America. Coming from a person who went through the public education system for 14 years, I loved my experience and did not take it for granted. My school district wasn’t the best, but it sure wasn’t the worst. I enjoyed my time in public education and I made lifelong friends that I will never forget. My experience on the collegiate level so far has been amazing as I am on the path of accomplishing my goal to my dream career. Unfortunately, not everyone can say the same statement. A lot of people
Instead, Sanford J. Ungar presents the arguments that all higher education is expensive and needs to be reevaluated for Americans. He attempts to divert the argument of a liberal arts education tuition by stating “ The cost of American higher education is spiraling out id control, and liberal-arts colleges are becoming irrelevant because they are unable to register gains i productivity or to find innovative ways of doing things” (Ungar 661). The author completely ignores the aspects of paying for a liberal arts degree or even the cost comparison to a public university. Rather, Ungar leads the reader down a “slippery slope” of how public universities attain more funding and grants from the government, while liberal arts colleges are seemingly left behind. The author increasingly becomes tangent to the initial arguments he presented by explaining that students have a more interactive and personal relationship with their professors and other students. Sanford J. Ungar did not address one aspect of the cost to attend a liberal arts college or how it could be affordable for students who are not in the upper class.
Is college a beautiful illusion of that if we go then all our problems in life won’t be so hard or is it actually is a place people go to shape and mold themselves into better people. Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, in their essay, Are Colleges Worth the price of Admission? Says that whether or not you go to a public or private institution, the cost of attending college has doubled, compared to when our parents and every other generation before us went to college. They went on and made a few good point by saying how schools should engage the students more, also how they should replace tenure with multiyear contracts, but their arguments about postgraduate training and spreading donations around is where they might had begun to lose their audience.
Newman, John Henry. "The Idea of a University." The Presence of Others. 3rd ed. Ed. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 126 - 131.
It should not be a surprise that many people believe that a college degree is a necessity in today’s world. We are taught to believe this at a young age. The average citizen will not question this statement due to how competitive the job market has become, yet does graduating college guarantee more success down the road? Peter Brooks is a scholar at Princeton University and publisher of an essay that questions the value of college. He obviously agrees that college can help securing a job for the future, but questions the humanities about the education. He uses other published works, the pursuit of freedom, and draws on universal arguments that pull in the reader to assume the rest of his essay has valid reasons.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
To begin with, there are valid points made. For starters universities need to stop considering themselves as businesses and stop putting business first, and
The biggest question or dispute regarding the cost of higher education is finding the appropriate monetary and economical equation to determine the percentage of personal and public responsibility. The above debate has been in question since the 1800’s when Thomas Jefferson stated; "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness ”. Those important words that called attention to the importance of having an educated citizenry in order to preserve democracy are until this day, words by which legislator...
Colleges and community colleges have their share of faults, and these three writers express what should be done to repair the broken system; if Carey were to attempt upholding his view that for-profits have their place in education, the result would be complete annihilation. Yes, for-profits benefit those who reap gains from the system, but Hacker and Dreifus and Addison would tear apart this view with the true meaning of education. Educated graduates with jobs that help create a better society are essential to the function of societies all over the world; therefore, colleges exist for the purpose of producing these graduates capable of making a difference. Students need education—students are the purpose of education. Although Carey’s claim—the government should not interfere with the success of for-profit owners—has integrity, Hacker, Dreifus, and Addison all believe that it is not in the right place. In their view, for-profits have no value to anyone but the owners. In sum, Carey would be shut down with the reality that an education system with the central purpose of earning profit does not value providing an education that benefits both students and society—the main focus is money. In turn, what is available could hardly be considered an education, according to Hacker, Dreifus, and Addison. However, the marketing scheme of for-profits still successfully entices people to enroll by offering accessibility with quick and easy degrees, which would infuriate Ungar and
When people think of college, they often think of their education like they had when they were in high school and grammar school. But colleges and universities aren’t schools. They’re all businesses. College isn’t paid for through taxes or government funded. It comes from our pockets. But other countries like Australia, England, Ireland and Germany run their colleges and universities just like a high school. Every person goes to the same college and it’s paid for through their government taxes. A college education is no longer an option, but it’s vital. The competition of getting a decent job is increasing and it’s almost impossible to find a high paying job without a bachelor's degree, which means more money goes to the already rich universities. It’s going to take a long tim...
As colleges’ funds dry up, colleges must turn to the public to further support higher education. By raising state taxes, colleges can collect funds to help improve the school’s budgets. The state provides funds from the taxes for colleges to receive a certain amount for each student currently enrolled. All community and traditional four year colleges collect these funds in order to maintain the school’s budget. As reporter, Eric Kelderman states, “less than a third of colleges’ budget is based from state taxes”. The school’s budget is how colleges are able to provide academic support programs, an affordable intuition, and hire more counselors. Colleges must now depend on state taxes more than ever for public colleges. Without collecting more funds from state taxes, as author, Scott Carlson explains how Mr. Poshard explains to senators “our public universities are moving quickly toward becoming private universities…affordable only to those who have the economic wherewithal to them” (qtd. in.) Public colleges must be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend. If colleges lack to provide this to students, it can affect dropouts, a student’s ability focus, and cause stress. The problem of lack of funding is that colleges have insufficient funds. Therefore, the best possible solution for the problem of lack of funding would be increasing and collecting more funds from state taxes.
A diverse array of arguments concerning the costly price of college and its equivalence to the ultimate result of attending persists along a vastly debatable spectrum of economic and social influences. Those seeking a better standard of living by the means of higher education often find themselves in conditions that are more adverse than their lifestyle prior to attending college. Efforts to dwindle the expenditure of college education have the potential to produce a heightened reality of the world, with intellectual knowledge as a pivotal key. The expensive cost and limitability of a college education has potential to invoke incentive to work harder in one’s studies; however, the cost can crush individuals enrolled, obtaining a college degree does not ensure employment, and an excessive number of individuals are hesitant to attend college in the first place due to the prevalent debt tied to its completion.
By attending college, students guarantees themselves a better job that the average Joe. Because the world is changing rapidly, and many jobs rely on new technology, more jobs require education beyond high school. With a college education, an individual will have more jobs from which to choose. In addition to obtaining a better job, people who go to college usually earn more money than those who do not. College furnishes you with proper credentials and documents to land high-level jobs. Figures from an A&E television program on ‘The Working Class’ show that in 2004 the average earnings were $23,895 for a high school graduate and $41,478 for individuals with a bachelor’s degree. Getting a college education is simply a stepping stone in ensuring yourself with a good start in life. Some may agree that college students are open minded and knows exactly how to expre...
This has sparked the debate as to whether higher education ought to be offered free of charge or not, with many rallying for the former. In order to level the playground for all Americans and offer equal opportunities in life; higher education should be offered free of charge to all. This paper seeks to make a convincing argument regarding the importance and need of having free higher education. At the same time, this essay seeks to cite some of the opinions of those of a contrary opinion, giving them a different viewpoint. In the end, this essay will weigh the benefits of free higher education against the drawbacks and probably, convince everyone that the benefits are enough to guarantee free higher education.