Page 20 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 20
šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
– all paid for by the United States government. By comparison, Jacqueline
Williams, who left the Air Force and attended a two year college in San
Antonio in the early 1990s, was given $ 4,800 per year under the G.I. Bill
which did not even cover her tuition (Celis, 1994). Over the twenty-plus
years since, college tuition has increased exponentially. One review states
that the tuition at private national universities in the United States has
risen 179% between 1995 and 2015. (Mitchell 2015) Other reviews report
different figures, some of which show lower increases, but the steep trajec-
tory of increased tuition and related costs over time in the United States
remains the central story.
The resultant gap between coverage of college costs by, for example,
the G.I. Bill beginning in 1944 and higher rates of tuition and fees has
been filled in the United States through private student loans. Students,
urged to attend college or university, and facing generally unfavorable
job markets without a college degree, have been persuaded to incur sub-
stantial debt on the theory that it is the only viable avenue to achieve the
American Dream of prosperity. The result according to a seven part series
reported by a team of reporters from the New York Times in 2012 (Martin
and Lehren, 2012) has been the creation of a generation of student debtors.
As the various stories reported make clear, students, driven by the desire
to achieve upward mobility and pursue their American Dream incurred
substantial college tuition debt only to find in many cases that changes
in the economy did not allow them to prosper as they anticipated. Mixed
into this set of circumstances the authors of the story note are increased
efforts to lure student consumers: “Colleges are aggressively recruiting
students, regardless of their financial circumstances. In admissions offices
across the country, professional marketing companies and talented alum-
ni are being enlisted to devise catchy slogans, build enticing Web sites —
and essentially outpitch the competition” (Martin and Lehren, 2012). The
intersection of the pressure to attend higher education, the lack of mar-
ketable skills in the U.S. job market upon graduation from high school,
the influence of peers, parents, and guidance counselors, and the desire to
reach for their own personal conception of the American Dream create
a nearly irresistible vortex of forces. In the process, Adams’ vision of the
American Dream is reconfigured beyond recognition. Absorbing the lat-
est op-ed piece as I write this I read, “Student debt is crushing Mainers’
dreams,” (Libby, 2017) a story that has not reached its end.
The student debt crisis in the United States might seem an anoma-
ly disconnected from Adams’ American Dream if it were not for the fact
that other personal and societal financial crises did not share some of the
same structural and social-psychological features. Among the more re-
18
– all paid for by the United States government. By comparison, Jacqueline
Williams, who left the Air Force and attended a two year college in San
Antonio in the early 1990s, was given $ 4,800 per year under the G.I. Bill
which did not even cover her tuition (Celis, 1994). Over the twenty-plus
years since, college tuition has increased exponentially. One review states
that the tuition at private national universities in the United States has
risen 179% between 1995 and 2015. (Mitchell 2015) Other reviews report
different figures, some of which show lower increases, but the steep trajec-
tory of increased tuition and related costs over time in the United States
remains the central story.
The resultant gap between coverage of college costs by, for example,
the G.I. Bill beginning in 1944 and higher rates of tuition and fees has
been filled in the United States through private student loans. Students,
urged to attend college or university, and facing generally unfavorable
job markets without a college degree, have been persuaded to incur sub-
stantial debt on the theory that it is the only viable avenue to achieve the
American Dream of prosperity. The result according to a seven part series
reported by a team of reporters from the New York Times in 2012 (Martin
and Lehren, 2012) has been the creation of a generation of student debtors.
As the various stories reported make clear, students, driven by the desire
to achieve upward mobility and pursue their American Dream incurred
substantial college tuition debt only to find in many cases that changes
in the economy did not allow them to prosper as they anticipated. Mixed
into this set of circumstances the authors of the story note are increased
efforts to lure student consumers: “Colleges are aggressively recruiting
students, regardless of their financial circumstances. In admissions offices
across the country, professional marketing companies and talented alum-
ni are being enlisted to devise catchy slogans, build enticing Web sites —
and essentially outpitch the competition” (Martin and Lehren, 2012). The
intersection of the pressure to attend higher education, the lack of mar-
ketable skills in the U.S. job market upon graduation from high school,
the influence of peers, parents, and guidance counselors, and the desire to
reach for their own personal conception of the American Dream create
a nearly irresistible vortex of forces. In the process, Adams’ vision of the
American Dream is reconfigured beyond recognition. Absorbing the lat-
est op-ed piece as I write this I read, “Student debt is crushing Mainers’
dreams,” (Libby, 2017) a story that has not reached its end.
The student debt crisis in the United States might seem an anoma-
ly disconnected from Adams’ American Dream if it were not for the fact
that other personal and societal financial crises did not share some of the
same structural and social-psychological features. Among the more re-
18
