Summary:
The cost of education and the lack of assistance will remain a constant problem in the United States until colleges work out a way to make education inexpensive and teachers receive better working conditions.
Introduction
A conflict that is growing more and more each year is the cost of education and the decrease in teachers. The question of "Why aren't there more people that want to be teachers"" and "Why is the cost of education increasing"" has been raised. Unfortunately, there is yet to be one answer to either of these questions. That is mainly because there is more than one answer to each of these questions. There have been attempts made to solve these conflicts, but a change has not taken place as of yet. If these problems are not taken care of very soon, there is no telling how this problem can or will effect the future.
Why are schools increasing tuition"
I did a search on www.Yahoo.com for "tuition increase" to see if I could find out why schools are raising tuition. It turns out that Kansas State, Rutgers University, Kansas University, Washington College, Old Dominion University and Perdue are just a few of the schools that are currently going through a tuition increase. These were only some of the colleges on the first of four hundred forty -five thousand web pages. Some of the reasons for the tuition increases were that:
"Some of the revenue will go into a need-based tuition reduction program for undergraduate students" said Tom Rawson, vice president of administration and finance at Kansas State.
I personally do not understand how raising tuition is going to eventually lower it.
The president of Rutgers University, Francis L. Lawrence, said:
"The reason for the tuition increase was to provide both a high quality education and access to New Jersey students."
According to the Perdue University website, their, as the call it, "Special tuition increase" is part of a plan by the Purdue University Calumet to "bolster student success."
The raising of tuition is a very complicated decision. All students can't financially afford tuition being increased. Raising tuition is mostly done to benefit the school and its students. But, tuition increases can make it more difficult to enroll into college. Personally, I have many friends that were forced to attend community colleges just because they are cheaper. The more tuition is raised by schools, the less students will be able to attend these colleges.
Where are the teachers"
A major problem that is plaguing the United States, especially in New York City, is the lack of qualified teachers. Many of the few teachers that are still around are beginning to retire or just leave the profession. In many public schools, there are teachers that are teaching subjects that they do not normally teach. Some of the current teachers are not from this country, so they still have accents from the countries they came from making it harder for students to understand them. This is mainly happening in public schools which means the students just aren't being taught well enough. According to a statement by New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, in 1999, students were having trouble in math and Science because 30 percent of the City's teachers were unqualified. All of these problems raise the question: "Why aren't there more people that want to be teachers""
This question can be answered by stating the obvious. A main reason for the lack of teachers is the lack of money that they are paid. For years, teachers have been underpaid. It is very ironic how there are people that play basketball, football and other sports like these, make millions of dollars each year just to entertain us. But the people that are educating and guiding the future of the world are being paid maybe twenty-five to forty-thousand dollars a year. Another reason for the lack of teachers is the working conditions. The board of education has cut back on funds to public schools greatly. The books that are being used are very much out of date. The aid of computers are in classrooms but for some unknown reason not used. Teachers can't make copies of handouts for their classes. And in some cases it has reached the point to where teachers don't even have chalk to write on the blackboard. If conditions for teachers in schools don't drastically change soon, the future of today's youth does not look very good.
In conclusion, the cost of education and the lack of assistance will remain a constant problem in the United States until colleges work out a way to make education inexpensive and teachers receive better working conditions. With the way that prices for everything is always rising, people need jobs that will help them to live comfortably. Until wages and conditions for teachers are improved, this problem will not go away. Also, until costs of going to colleges such as universities and state schools are decreased, more students will be forced to go to community colleges or not go to college at all. These are problems that need to be solved as soon as possible. The future of millions of young people around the world is a stake.
*Kansas State
http://kstatecollegian.com/stories/062602/new_tuition.shtml
*Rutgers University
http://ur.rutgers.edu/focus/index.phtml"Article_ID=974&Issue_ID=121
*Perdue University
http://www.calumet.purdue.edu/strategic/specialtuition.htm
*Alan Hevesi
http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/press/archive_releases/99-03-021.shtm
Index
- Introduction
- Why are schools increasing tuition?
- Where are the teachers?
- Conclusion
This is the complete article, containing 839 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
