Did you guys hear about the lack of state funding amongst the state universities? The state is in a bit of a financial crisis so they cut back on educational funding and as a result leaving schools in turmoil. A number of the schools affected by this include Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Edwardsville, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Chicago, the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) . The most publicized of these schools is UCSC.
Within the last year UCSC has had to cut about 11% of their course offerings and as a result leaving the school in chaos. This has been happening to other schools such as UIC as well. Because there are fewer classes available, the existing classes fill up quickly forcing students who didn’t get in to wait till next semester. Due to the difficulty of getting into classes, hundreds of students miss out on core classes. If a student isn’t able to get into a core class than they’re unable to take all the other classes that come after that class which acts a huge blockade in their academic progress which could ultimately lead to a delay in their graduation. Students attending state schools usually come from middle class families and cannot afford an extra semester or an extra year. Some students even lose their financial aid due to the fact that they’re unable to get into a sufficient amount of classes. And to make up for this lack of state funding schools now have to raise their tuition making it even harder to pay for college now.
I really hope that the state will reconsider or that we, the people of state, vote in new members that will start funding the schools more because I don’t really see any reason why we shouldn’t fund the school because favorable it’s to the state in almost every aspect. First, by funding the schools again that will solve the lack of classes issue at schools like UCSC. Secondly, as a nation we ideally want everyone to be educated. Congressman Solomon Ortiz once said, “education is the key to success” so the more educated our nation is the more successful it will be. But if we can’t get the education we need than the less successful our nation will be. So if the state were to provide more funding than more people would be able to complete and afford college. Lastly the students that are in school now are going to be running the nation in a couple years right? So if we them to run the nation well than wouldn’t it be in the state’s favor to fund the schools well so the students now get a high quality education? Or would they rather keep the money to themselves and give the students now a half-assed education so they can go off and try to run the nation?
A suggested solution is to make state colleges vocational schools. That way students from middle class families just go to a vocational school to learn a certain trade right after high school. It would be cheaper for the state and the students will always be learning practical things. Although this would solve lack of core classes but it would cause students to miss out on the college experience. College is about exploring your options, trying new things and finding your passion in life and if you were to go to a vocational school you would just learn one trade and you would be only know how to do one thing rather than being rounded in many different things.
By the state not funding the college it is also ruining our college experience. By not funding the school it causes the students to live in fear. The fear of not getting into the class you want, the fear of having your graduation delayed and the fear of not being able to afford college. And living in fear is not what the college experience is about. College as mentioned above, is about trying new things and part of trying new things are the variety of classes that are available. But with a lack of funding from the state’s part colleges won’t be able to offer a large variety of classes in which case we might as well be a vocational school. These variety of class allow the students to become a well rounded person. By not funding the schools it is as if the state is lessening the quality of our education. As the future leaders of the world we deserve a high quality education and we don’t deserve to live in fear.
No comments:
Post a Comment