“What College Can Mean To The Other America”

What College Can Mean to the Other America [Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

What College Can Mean to the Other America

Introduction

In the Journal “What college can mean to the other America”, Mike Rose shed a light upon the issue that has been prevalent in the American society.

For years, many teenagers, due to lack of access to affordable and quality education, have resorted opting for low paying dead-end jobs.

However, due to the unforgiving capitalist nature of the American economy, those who are already disenfranchised are continuously drifting out of from even those low-paying dead-end jobs.

Policymakers, reformists, and educationists have put their heads together to find a robust plan to tackle this problem.

Every time, a suggestion emanates from such meetings; every citizen must be provided with equal access to affordable and quality education.

Discussion

Education a fundamental right

In many advanced and industrialized nations, it is widely agreed that access to education is a basic human right.

According to Savani, without having access to affordable and quality education, citizens can never participate in the democratic, political, and economic process in true sense (Savani, Rattan & Dweck 2017).

Furthermore, Savani argues that education is something that is beneficial for society collectively (Savani, Rattan & Dweck 2017).

Additionally, with access to education, individuals are incorporated into the society who are enlightened and motivated to take society to unparalleled success.

Education enables people to actively participate in society

With adequate education, people would be presented with numerous opportunities that would help them to understand the real meaning of living in a civilized and democratic society.

Lambert holds the view that by providing means to individuals to access education equally, the people of the society would acquire skills and knowledge to move on to bigger and organized communities (Lambert, Solem & Tani 2015).

Furthermore, Lambert argues that with the recognition of the right of equal access to education, a society having various cultural and social elements would be shaped (Lambert, Solem & Tani 2015). Hence, enabling its members to interact and participate actively (Lambert, Solem & Tani 2015).

Education as a tool to pull people out of poverty

It is incumbent on the Federal government to invest additional resources in the field of education, especially college-level education.

Duke recognizes that following the completion of a college degree, an individual is on their way to land a full-time job (Duke, 2018).

With the government investing more resources into college-level education, individuals would never be indebted to student loans.

Moreover, overall investment in education would mean that there is a little burden on the citizens in terms of finances, says Duke (Duke, 2018).

With up-to-date educational infrastructure, practices, and standards, the education system would produce individuals that would serve the country in different fields by working a substantive salary.

Therefore, having sound education provides individuals to avail bigger and better economic opportunities.

Capitalism exacerbating the issue of equal access to education

According to the capitalistic perspective, every individual has freedom and equality (Hodgson, 2018).

This is true as far as the law is concerned.

However, capitalism has increased significant inequalities related to wealth.

In the US alone, about 1% of the wealthiest people have control over 34% of the wealth (Hodgson, 2018).

Against this background, it becomes quite difficult for an individual to deal with the unforgiving nature of the capitalist economy (Hodgson, 2018).

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the discussion above, it is evident that the majority of the researchers agreed that access to education is a right that should be safeguarded at all costs.

Furthermore, the researchers highlighted that by having the necessary skills and knowledge, a society can benefit collectively.

Lastly, the capitalist nature of the economy has proven to be the biggest impediment in providing equal opportunities to every citizen.

References

Duke, C. (Ed.). (2018). Combatting poverty through adult education: National development strategies. Routledge.

Hodgson, G. M. (2018). Evolution and intention in economic theory. In Evolutionary Theories of Economic and Technological Change (pp. 108-132). Routledge.

Lambert, D., Solem, M., & Tani, S. (2015). Achieving human potential through geography education: A capabilities approach to curriculum making in schools. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 105(4), 723-735.

Savani, K., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2017). Is education a fundamental right? People’s lay theories about intellectual potential drive their positions on education. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(9), 1284-1295.