Submitted by: Gregory Fowler
The Occupy Wall Street movement has had one consistent message: there is a severely large economic gap between the top one percent of Americans and the rest of the country. This gap is so severe, that nothing like it in America has been seen since the Great Depression. To make matters worse for the next generation, college tuition has been increasing steadily since the mid seventies. These two things when combined make the chance of parents providing an education for their children almost impossible. A traditional four year college education now seems more like a fantasy than something remotely attainable in the American Dream.
In addition to this, federal funding for college tuition falls short of providing relief for the majority of American students. Funding for Pell Grants, money set aside by the federal government to assist students in college tuition, has been remarkably unable to keep up with rising college tuition costs.
Since the government is not funding higher education for the next generation, where is funding going? Below is a chart provided by ThinkProgress.org that simplifies the 2012 federal budget. If you had direct control of budget spending, what would you do differently? Or, what kinds of values do you think the government has by looking at this chart?
The Occupy Wall Street movement has had one consistent message: there is a severely large economic gap between the top one percent of Americans and the rest of the country. This gap is so severe, that nothing like it in America has been seen since the Great Depression. To make matters worse for the next generation, college tuition has been increasing steadily since the mid seventies. These two things when combined make the chance of parents providing an education for their children almost impossible. A traditional four year college education now seems more like a fantasy than something remotely attainable in the American Dream.
In addition to this, federal funding for college tuition falls short of providing relief for the majority of American students. Funding for Pell Grants, money set aside by the federal government to assist students in college tuition, has been remarkably unable to keep up with rising college tuition costs.
Since the government is not funding higher education for the next generation, where is funding going? Below is a chart provided by ThinkProgress.org that simplifies the 2012 federal budget. If you had direct control of budget spending, what would you do differently? Or, what kinds of values do you think the government has by looking at this chart?
