Blog Post3

Privatization connects to the topic of the Middle classes’ fear simply because it feeds off of it. Privatization is fueled on an ever present emotion in both the lower and middle classes.  In the article Debt and Taxes: Can the Financial Industry save Public Universities? The author uses University of California to some up an example of Privatization using this fear in action. He states “By following the logic of financialization, UC could theoretically raise revenues from enrollment growth for as long as Californians were more willing to incur debt than to pay higher taxes”( Meister 134). This quote deals with two fears and ideas that circulate in American society, The first being that going to debt for education is the way out and the  second being never want to pay higher taxes. Is it possible that college and the debt it puts you in has become a trait of the middle class?

Is fear causing the struggle?

Blog Post#2

As previously mentioned before the key focus on this blog is not necessarily the price of tuition and their continuing growth rates but ,more so the reason why people are buying into college despite the high cost. The middle class is a lot of times used as a pawn for political reasons to convey a certain image. For some the middle class is portrayed as the everyday American, for other the middle class is depicted as a diminishing number however the middle class is perceived there is always the idea of that particular group of people trying to maintain that status if not move up.  Education is the most common way that middle class use to secure their place. Author Barbara Ehrenrich  of the  Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class writes about how from a historical aspect, despite the cost of tuition, this has always been a fear.

 

This Blog is about the choices families make about higher education despite their financial situations. The article used in class really focuses on the behind the scenes decisions that universities make in favor of private investors. At the end of the day no matter who controls the price of tuition and the means that families get the money, the most important factor is the fact that students are going to school no matter what. I want to focus on the thought process of families and the fear and other factors that drives them to make risky financial decisions in the name of higher education. Once one can conclude what is the cause of such drive then one can figure out how this crude higher education cycle has lasted so long.