Section 01
Week 4
As the state and government continue to cut or reduce the budget for education, we start to turn to privatization in order to fund schools. The article by Josh Eidelson Fighting Privatization, Occupy Activists at CUNY and UC Kick Into Gear, really went into detail to explain how our schools are really turning to market logic. And to me, this is problematic because we then are concerned with feasible results and producing work rather than focusing on being a resource to give to the students in order for them to strive to be critical thinkers. We are perpetuating the original idea of school, which is to produce people who will contribute to the national economy. But the truth is, this is lacking in depth as tuition rises and becomes more unattainable for people who are working class, people of color, or immigrants. We assume education is the doorway to be able to provide good livelihood therefore ignoring the reality that we do not live in a horizontal society because there are people who are just struggling to feed themselves here in the U.S. The competitive and exclusive atmosphere that is being fostered through privatization is furthering oppression and causing historical amnesia and is cutting ties off from communities that are hoping those who are able to go to college are trying to work for the people.
"The more you know, the more you owe."
I know that the UC is planning on getting rid of major advisors and trying to centralize power. As a former environmental major, I know that the one advisor would tell me how little time she has to help students because she is in charge of advising up to 500 students. We are continuing to move away from helping the people who need the resources.
For a country that values education, why do we make it such an exclusive resource?
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