Poverty In College Education

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Despite being one of the most developed countries in the world, the USA still struggles with poverty. 14.5% of Americans are below the poverty line (Gongloff). For the most part, this is a result of people being unable to find jobs that pay for their cost of living. While social welfare programs would help Americans have more money, they would be treating poverty on the surface rather than treating the root of the problem. The best way to help the lower class evade poverty is to improve Americans’ skill sets, and the simplest way to do that is to educate them. In today’s economy, a college education is nearly essential for any well-paying job. One study revealed that college graduates earn $17,500 more income than high school graduates.…show more content…
In the past, this was enough for most Americans because the average person would one day have a blue collar job. While this amount of education may be enough to make the average American literate, it is not enough to make the average American skilled enough to work in the job fields the United States needs. As technology and automation continue to revolutionize the job industry, fewer blue collar jobs are needed, and more white collar jobs are needed. Because of this, a high school diploma is no longer sufficient, and some college education is required for all but the most exceptional of Americans to earn a high wage. Clearly since years K-12 are funded by taxpayers, Americans already see the reasons behind providing education for all. Now, it is time to increase the level of education available to all…show more content…
The primary counterargument is that the money required to finance free college institutions cannot come from thin air. Instead, it must come from taxpayers (Anderson, Ellen). However, this does not need to be a devastatingly high tax. Countries such as Germany had to increase their taxes enormously to fund public universities because they made every public college free throughout the country (Schlesinger). American policy does not need to be this black-or-white. If every state simply made an undergraduate degree at one in-state university free, then taxpayers would not be significantly burdened. Additionally, practically every American would have the option of not putting themselves into crippling debt to complete their education. It makes much more sense for every taxpayer to pay a small tax than for every student to pay enormous amounts of money plus interest after graduating. By investing in the nation’s students, there is no question that the American economy would benefit. Detractors of more public education also claim that paying for college teaches Americans how to budget their finances. Unfortunately, for the average American, this is just simply not true. The average college graduate has $37,000 in student loan debt (Anderson, Ellen). Meanwhile, the average income after college is $50,556 (Poppick). This is not a healthy financial situation for anyone, and instead of teaching

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