Free community college a threat to rich conservative status
Mesa Legend
Tuition rates and student loan debt are at an all-time high in the U.S., making it difficult to produce educated and highly-trained people in our depressed workforce and struggling economy. So when President Obama recently proposed free community college, it would seem like a common sense solution to an outdated problem, right? Well, not to everyone.
Although the proposal would undoubtedly benefit low income students who are struggling to keep up with the out-of-control tuition hikes each semester, there are some people, okay a huge group of them, who vehemently oppose it, but who? Mostly rich, white, old, conservative men; the usual suspects. Let’s break down a few of their arguments: “Free community college is like welfare. People will get an education without putting in any effort.” This is completely flawed. Students will have to attend school at least part-time and keep a 2.5 grade point average. This absolutely requires effort.
“People will not value a free education. You get what you pay for.” Really? Ask the millions of students who graduate from colleges whose educations were funded solely from Pell grants or students who graduate from public high school. I guess those students didn’t value their education either since it was free. False. Moving on.
“The majority of community college students do not graduate or finish their degree. Free community college would make retention and graduation rates worse.” Nope. As mentioned earlier, tuition and student loan debts are rising, causing a lot of students to drop out because they can no longer afford to attend classes. Free tuition would not only attract new students, but would allow returning students to hop on the horse again.
In reality, analyzing the rhetoric and flawed arguments of conservatives (and yes, even some liberals, although rare) is pointless. These arguments are just a distraction from the underlying issue. The real problem is that conservatives opposing free education fear that the majority becomes an educated people, the same educated people who have been historically low income, historically oppressed, and historically ignorant and therefore subservient for hundreds of years.
Why wouldn’t a group of people who have been historically privileged, historically oppressive, and historically educated be threatened by the notion that the masses might be given better access to higher education? Simple. They fear competition. They fear awakening. They fear losing authority of the systemic ignorance that has kept them on top for so long. “Knowledge is power,” and for so long it has only belonged to a privileged few; not anymore.
