jackie posted this and asked that it be passed on.
she has written here, what i have been thinking about but been unable to articulate...
Hope
There has to be a fairer way to fund higher education than imposing the dread stone weight of debt around the ankles of those who chose the path of knowledge. It is not only that individual who benefits from learning.
This morning, did you read a newspaper? Drive a car? Have you ever been to the doctors? Perhaps you had a child, delivered by a midwife? Maybe your children go to school? Perhaps you are reading this on a computer? Maybe you take photographs, cook food, go to restaurants. Are you or is someone you know on medication? Have you ever in your life been on an aeroplane? Do you read books?
We all benefit from people who have had a university education in almost everything we do in everyday life.
Students have already spent up to 3 years of their lives not earning, in some cases up to seven years, making their way through college courses, some in pursuit of learning, others in pursuit of dreams and a few just treading water until they find the right path.
From cleaning the house with a vacuum cleaner, to driving, washing, in so very many ways engineering, design students benefit everyone. So how can it possibly be unfair for everyone to contribute to the education of our population? And students are not just kids leaving school, but sometimes mature students who have realised through experience the paths their lives should go, who need a qualification in order to realise their dream. How can a father or mother with two young children ever now take that brave decision to leave work in favour of three years of hard work and learning, with fees to pay and a family to feed? And students with disabilities. How can they be expected to take on so much debt?
Why punish those even more but weighting their lives with a growing debt, for if they don't achieve the £21 000 a year and start paying back it will grow.
If you live in a cave, don't drive, have nothing technical in your cave, never take medicine and have no kids etc, ok, maybe you should get a tax rebate. Otherwise in our glorious and beautiful interconnected web of life everybody benefits so everybody should contribute, levelling the playing field just a little and sharing the burden.
I for one would rather invest in people, in their potential, in a brighter future for our youth than in banks.
And I would celebrate the colaboration of art and science, not favour one above the other. The world needs its dreamers and thinkers and sceince and art so much closer than so many people understand. Next time you vacuum your house lust look at the amazing piece of everyday design and technology you are using.
I would share the cost of educating our population, I would celebrate that web that connects us all to each other, strengthen it. That is the true meaning of The Big Society, if only Cameron had the whit to realise it.
Just because the vote for the increase in fees has gone through government it does not mean that the fight against this is over. The bill has a long way to go and if there is no one in opposition who has the powers to stand against this retrograde piece of legislation then we will have to do it ourselves. So if you blog, then cut, copy, paste or link to this post. If you are facebook then please share this post.