Economic conditions have been precipitating an increased volume of political activity and grass-roots protest, so its no surprise that many of these groups are organized through students in college & university.  While the issues are not limited to economic or educational concerns, the university still acts as a place where civic-minded youths can ponder ideas of social concern and invest some time making opinions known.

In England, such a political campaign has turned its attention from global politics to the school tuition bill.  As the British economy is heavily reliant on banking and financial services for tax revenue, the sudden collapse of these income streams has led to a quicker than usual attempt by the government to cut costs – particularly to such expenses like education, health and employment benefits, and other social services.  Some proposals have been made to privatise extsing state schools, some shift the cuts to the students with higher tuition costs, and some are talking about raising revenue with higher corporate cooperation and more advertising around campus.

Of course, that means there are some students who aren’t interested in that sort of compromise at all – and some of them are even going further to argue in favor of free college for all admitted students.  Is it practical?  Maybe not in the short term – but then again, many great new plans didn’t sound very practical compared to the status quo of their own day.  If college costs were eliminated – and economically speaking, you can only shift the cost to someone else or society at large – some might wonder fourty years from now how we ever survived in a post-industrial society with so few college graduates and highly educated workers.

Blue collar work & manual labor – no matter how much it has been romanticized – can never be as valuable in the future as it was in the past.  While some will argue for tariffs and social welfare as a means of protecting those with less access to higher education, no solution provides the long term benefits and innovation that can be generated by educating every individual to their highest potential – regardless of their personal or family ability to pay.

The pursuit of short term profits at the expense of long term sustainability is at the root of our current financial crisis.  The mood is turning, in England, in the USA, and in many places that have been directly impacted by the spiraling economic situation…  Perhaps now is the best time to really consider such plans as they may be designed and implemented over the next few years.

5 Responses to “Students in England Protest for Free College”

  1. I would have to agree. Obviously we are coming to an age where technology is the future… but then again there is Always a need for blue collar labor. 80 percent of our nations wealth is in what is it 20 percent of our populations hands. So that means that the vast majority of Americans actually are blue collared workers. And while they are unemployed and out of work currently… those peoples incomes are what drive this economy and has always been the heart of our nation.

  2. Why do students have to suffer always. Being a student I dislike the action of British government they should support education in every possible manner.

  3. The English government is probably thinking short term. The students or one may call them future of the country are dearly going to suffer by the government’s decision. Development is proportional to education and level of people in society if it gets down than all efforts may go in vain.

  4. hy

  5. It’s kinda sad that education systems are always one of the first things to lose funding when things go awry.

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