Pay for It Now and Pay for It Later

I have always been a proponent of education and believe that it is the foundation of a prosperous society. Education is a privilege and in our society, a thirteen year education has become a right and, yes, a mandate. When my grandfather went to school, many young people did not complete the 12^th grade. Granted, that was seventy five years ago but we have certainly come a long way from offering education to requiring education and the sad thing is that I am not sure that society is functioning any better because of it. It almost appears that as we become more educated, we become less enlightened. While my grandfather did not have a high school diploma, what he did have was something that certainly stood him in good steed and made him a successful provider, a good family man and a solid member of his community. He had a strong work ethic and the ability to commit himself to his work, life and community without always looking for an easier path to prosperity.

The new trend in politics is to push higher education and it is a trend that needs a little tweaking. Tennessee recently came out with an ill formed plan to pay the tuition for community college tuition or technical school for Tennessee graduates. This “promise” is designed to be a last dollar funding, meaning that it only kicks in after federal grants and the hope scholarship have been applied, as well as any other monies. On the surface, that sounds wonderful. Give everyone the opportunity to extend their schooling. However, things are not always as they first appear and sometimes, on second or third glance, they just might lose their luster. I have never seen a student that truly wanted to further their education be held back by money. Certainly, I have seen them sweat and scramble to find scholarships or even to make the grade to be eligible for or keep scholarships. I have seen them go into debt for their education and I have seen them work their way through school. But, unlike some in political office, I don’t consider those to be bad things. Scrambling for what you want is a part of life. Learning to make things work is a life lesson and we are not doing young people any favors by handing them what every other generation worked to achieve.

Scholarships should require more than meeting the minimum. No one would be on board with giving just anyone who wanted one a college basketball scholarship. So long as they can run up and down the court, they can play college ball and they can absorb the available scholarship money from those athletes that worked and sweated for years to earn the privilege of playing collegiate sports. It sounds silly doesn’t it? After all, we all know that being a collegiate athlete requires much more than just the minimum. And so does being a successful student. Who are we to devalue what some students work so hard to achieve? Because, make no bones about it, this program will devalue a college education. As students that are unprepared to attend college flood into community colleges, these institutions will be pushed into watering down curriculums and making concessions that will impact the quality of education for every student.

Higher education should never be the easy way out. It should be a mountain that is climbed on the way to reach a goal. Getting in should be considered an achievement and graduating from college should be an accomplishment.

I understand the desire to make our State as educated as possible for marketability. And, apparently, the federal government is looking at extending funding much like what is in place in Tennessee to students in every state. Actually, the federal plan will carry the Promise a step further and allow students to use their Pell Grant money for living expenses. So, a student will go to school for free and still have funds to pay for living expense “instead of working and going to school part time.” Their words, not mine. Since when was working toward a goal considered an undoable hardship?

Education is a mandate until age 18 and it should be. It is our job as a society to turn out educated community members, whether they want to be or not. Sometimes you just don’t know what you need at age 16. However, higher education is just not the same. You need a car. You want a Lexus. Not every student is prepared to go to college. Not every student wants to go to college and we should not lose sight of the fact that many very successful people have taken other paths. And not every student will be successful in college. It is near sighted to take away from those that have prepared themselves for college to provide an easy path for those that simply don’t care enough to climb the hurdles. If we want to further education and provide more opportunities, perhaps our funds would be better spent on strong vocational programs, better pay for educators and loan forgiveness after completion of college.

For the same reasons that we do not simply print more money when in an economic recession, we cannot fix what is wrong in our society by flooding the market with watered down diplomas. Our problems are rooted in values and priorities, work ethic and commitment. Perhaps we, as a society, have expected to little and fixed too much for our young people. Or maybe we have simply created a place where everyone wins, so no one wins. Maybe to institute real change we must first change our expectations and realize that the only true way to let our children soar is to give them a little push from the nest and to not be afraid to let them fall. College is a personal goal, decision and commitment, both financial and otherwise. The government should do what the government does best and lose this one in red tape.