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Subscribe to RSSA quick scan of our incoming pictures from the last few days shows that students are on the march around the world. College kids in Italy, Bulgaria, Chile and Britain are protesting budget cuts and student fee increases. In a world where knowledge is power, can nations afford to not fund higher education?
Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images
Students demonstrate, Nov. 17, 2010 in the center of Rome against reforming universities and budget cuts decided by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government. Over the last two years, the Berlusconi government adopted several new bills, which cut the education budget by 9 billion Euros and remove 130,000 jobs over the 2009-2013 period.
Eliseo Fernandez / Reuters
A high school student is detained by riot police during a protest inside the Chilean congress in Valparaiso city, about 75 miles northwest of Santiago, Nov. 16, 2010. Over 60 students protested at the parliament against changes to public education and are demanding the government to increase university budgets.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP - Getty Images
Students carry books on their heads, Nov. 16, 2010, in front of Sofia's university building in Sofia, Bulgaria during a protest against higher education budget cuts. For 2010, the Bulgarian government is forecasting modest growth of 1%, but observers, including the International Monetary Fund, are much less optimistic.
Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA
Students break through a window to enter into the Conservative Party Headquarters in London during a demonstration against raising the cap on student tuition fees, Nov. 10, 2010.
It’s also happening in the United States. AP’s Terence Chea reports:
SAN FRANCISCO — Police arrested and pepper-sprayed University of California students during a violent protest Wednesday over a proposed tuition increase that left three officers injured.
Thirteen people, including 10 UC students, were taken into custody during the demonstration at UC San Francisco, where the Board of Regents was meeting, said campus police Chief Pamela Roskowski.
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Education or Business?
Education of late seems more like a business. Universities worldwide invest the moneys given them, sometimes in volitale markets where the money is lost. In other cases, the money goes to the faculty in the form of a "raise", or campus expansion, and in both cases, tuition is raised, creating a symbiotic relationship between the wealthy, and educational institutions. The Phrogs opinion is, that if education is only for the rich and powerful, than the only paying jobs within reach, for the less fortunate, become those with the government, and sometimes that means wearing a uniform.
And the photo of the girl in Chile shows the results of this sort of lopsided trade of authority.
There's becoming more and more of a gap between the rich and poor when it comes to education. Sure, you can take student loans out, but at what cost? Now we have an indentured class where young people are trapped in tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and no way to pay it back or discharge it (student loans cannot be discharged in bankruptcy). If we want to improve our world, we need to make education affordable. College presidents earning millions of dollars a year is unacceptable, especially when tuition goes up every year!
just take the loan, kids, never pay it back...they owe you...it's YOUR world.
Thank God, the youth are waking up and demonstrating. I just pray we do not see Kent State or Tienemen square where protestors have to realize as per Malcom X stated"the price of freedom is death"
Ironically, my wife and I attended a student financial aid seminar last night at our local high school. The 90 minute seminar consisted of a guy telling the crowd, "Paying for your child's education is within reach. So, don't worry." We then watched a projected demonstration on how to apply for student loans.
Good times.