Save education; save the future

In recent legislature, Congress passed an increase to the Pell Grant in 2010 which was a major victory for young Americans from middle-class to lower-class family backgrounds.

This was a big blow in the battle against two smaller calamities amidst this budget crisis; the first being creating more opportunities and access for young Americans looking to afford the increasing costs of higher education and the second being the major dilemma awaiting Americans who graduate from higher education with tens of thousands of dollars in debt as they enter the workforce.

Although an increase in funding to the Pell Grant is needed to sustain this plan, investment in this program is one of the more effective methods which could eliminate the deficit.

These quandaries make it difficult for young Americans entering the workforce to become participating and contributing constituents in the national economy. A correlation exists between our current global economic competition and our struggle to provide stronger support to our educational institutions. The connection exists in the fact all while we scramble to find the reason we may soon be dethroned as the world economy superpower, America’s education system is falling behind in both higher education and elementary education.

Education is the key institution for which anyone can become a participating member in the national economy by obtaining financially strong and stable jobs, investing some of their own profit into American stock in the world market, and even possibly become one of the successful entrepreneurs we need to drive economic growth. This is why now, while we are in an urgent state, we need to choose to invest in our own educational system. Such investments can develop a future for those Americans we need to rise and support our larger economical efforts.

This would also alleviate the responsibility from the top one percent of our economy to continue balancing the economy on their own, as a rise in the educational successes—and correlatively financial successes—of classes of Americans could support our economy by becoming more considerable consumers.

My personal college experience is a testimony to governmental support of higher education access. As a recipient of the Keystone Scholarship at the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (a government funded program currently under review for being eliminated in budget cuts), I have no financial debt owed to any bank or organization.

This allowed me to invest my time into academic and personal development for a more extensive growth in my undergraduate education. I have become a law school applicant, a leader in band program which has grown from wearing t-shirts to full-fledged uniforms during my time, a student who has held leadership positions in the campus NAACP and student government, and even helped other students obtain public office in the local community. All this, instead of spending my time working small paying jobs throughout college which would be filled either way by other people who need the financial support.

If all goes as expected in four more years I will be young American with two degrees, no debt (so long as the new budget cuts do not decimate the Bond-Hill Scholarship program, another government funded program), and the ability to build my own financial portfolio with investments, not debt payments. Imagine the potential of having American generations with such opportunity; although not everyone can be fully supported, a stronger support from our government could open many similar doors or even opportunities with greater potential for individuals who would not know such a chance existed for their futures.

We have a prime opportunity to steer our great nation towards a beautiful horizon if we invest more in our future through education. Should we choose not to, we could plummet into the fate forecasted on commercials that show foreign nations laughing our decision making after our fall hegemonic grace; not because we didn’t give tax breaks to companies like Marcellus Shale for drilling, but because we lost sight of long-term investments in our own future and reached for temporary fixes that benefited large corporations.

Be for the future of America, save education.

Christopher Carter is the president of the Student Government Cooperative Association Inc. at the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.