My take on the education protests

I have several very dear friends here in the US who are getting, or who have gotten, their degrees based purely on federal grants and extensive, hard-earned scholarships. I, however, have never actually been enrolled in the university or college systems (although I have worked for a college, which gives me a rather unique perspective on things).

I, as a tax-paying member of society, a voter, and a lover or learning, feel the need to weigh in on this subject.

Nationwide, states are considering increasing university tuition fees and other associated secondary education costs. In Georgia, where I have at least one friend attending school, they were talking about not only nixing the Theater and Music departments entirely, but boosting tuition fees up to 100%.

Let’s take this one subject at a time. First, the nixing of programs:

I am an academic, first and foremost. I always have been, and I always will be. I love learning for the sake of learning, and even more I love taking classes that may have an impact on what I do in my adult life. I took Theater growing up, in the hopes of becoming not a thespian, although I have all the respect in the world for the people who choose to pursue that course, but becoming a stagehand. I succeeded at that cause.

I also took music and band very seriously throughout my school career. I enjoy music, both listening and playing, and it helped me quite a bit later on in life – the basic math principles coupled with my ability to identify notes by name and placement often come in handy in my career as a stagehand. Not only that, but I learned proper care and respect of an instrument which makes me invaluable as an instrument technician.

Needless to say, I think the very CONCEPT of cutting Music and Theater as nonessential is bullshit. Cut sports if need be – you’re not LEARNING anything there, and school is supposed to be about LEARNING. No, Music and Theater are both very ESSENTIAL parts of education, as those programs actually, you know, educate.

Now, the second part – raising tuition.

Here is what I think will happen if we raise tuition.

If we raise tuition, those students who depend on scholarships and grants for their education costs will suddenly not have enough money. Keeping in mind that many students not only cannot afford to appeal to their parents for help, and also often cannot get a job – either due to time or economics – this will lead to a great many dropouts. Many promising, intelligent individuals will have their futures ruined – bright futures. We could be dashing the promise of a cure for AIDS to the floor with this measure. Do you really think that someone who was raised in the upper crust of society and whose parents can actually afford to send them to school, no matter the cost, is going to care much about ending suffering? It can happen, but it’s not likely. It is entirely more likely that someone who has endured suffering – someone who has to see those they love dying around them from a lack of education on safe sex – and manages to escape that world and make something of themselves, is going to find the all-important answer to that question.

What this country needs right now is educated people. We have enough minimum-wage peons, thanks – we need skilled, intelligent people willing to save the world, not because it’s a good-paying job, but because they have the skills and they, as human beings, know they need to use them for the betterment of mankind and themselves.

What these measures will do is force perfectly good students out of school. Not only will that ruin their futures, but it won’t do what the government hopes it will do. They’re banking on people staying in school and paying the doubled tuition costs. What will happen is that only the students who have an excess of scholarships, or rich parents, or inheritances, will stay, and the level of income brought into the school will remain around the same.

So no, Mr. and Mrs. Legislator, cutting higher education and raising costs isn’t going to solve anything, short-term or long-term. In the short-term, you fail, and in the long-term, you may have ruined society’s chances of growing and saving itself. And if I, a relatively UNEDUCATED stagehand, can understand this, I do not understand why you cannot.

And I stand with my friends and their fellow students. I stand for them on their right to become educated, and to not be forced out because they weren’t born on the right side of the tracks. Keep marching, guys, and keep protesting – you, unlike your younger education counterparts, have the right to vote, and these guys know that. Protest, wear black, and let them know you won’t put up with this shit.

Let them know you’ll remember come voting day.

Originally published: March 4, 2010.