Nation Known the World Over for Its

¶ … nation known the world over for its wealth of upper echelon universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, the crucial backbone of America's educational structure is actually the diverse patchwork of state operated community colleges which provide inexpensive educational programs to the general public.

According to the National Council of Higher Education, "community colleges serve close to half of the undergraduate students in the United States, which included more than 6.5 million credit students in the fall of 2005" (AACC/NCHE), but the fundamental importance of this educational outlet is best measured by more than statistical means. With tuition rates rising on an annual basis and federal loans becoming increasingly restrictive with the provision of student aid, the community college system provides Americans of every age with a tangible goal on which to focus their aspirations.

While earning a postsecondary degree is a nearly universal goal among ambitious young people and adults alike, the economic barriers erected by a profit-driven public education system have led to a disturbing trend in which "millions of otherwise-qualified high school students aren't attending college, either because they can't afford it or because the admissions system screens them out" (Fisher).

As the cause of providing free community college classes gaining traction public officials and policymakers in cities with progressive political systems, it has become clear that the concept of complimentary postsecondary education is deserving of a chance to succeed in the free market on its intellectual merits alone. A comprehensive case for free community colleges was made in California by "the state's renowned master plan for higher education, which in 1960 & #8230; declared that the community colleges 'shall be tuition free to all residents'" (Gordon 1).

Since the passage of the state's master plan, multiple generations of California's students have been assured of their right to attend community college free of charge, but governmental mismanagement of the state's budget has forced schools to levy increasingly costly auxiliary "fees" in lieu of traditional tuition. Despite repeated "reaffirmation of California's long-time commitment to the principle of tuition-free education to residents of the state" (California State Board of Education), the overall cost of attending community college in California has ballooned to over $10,000 for the average student.

A rigorous research study conducted by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges concluded that "major corporations all over the world are planning to invest huge sums of money to corner what they call the education market, and governments give them encouragement in many ways that include inducing universities to behave like corporations" (Reznik 52).

The shrinking opportunity to pursue higher education is by no means limited to America, and "today, 60% of Canadian students -- about half of the next generation -- undertake an average debt of $27,000 to pay for their post-secondary education" (Kuran 2), a trend which indicates that reductions in educational availability may be a pervasive element inherent to modern capitalism.

The appropriate response to the infusion of investment capital into the public educational system should not be to transfer the financial burden for future students to bear, and instead the provision of free community college educational programs must be demanded by the public and embraced by policymakers.

The willingness of both the public and policymakers to provide higher education for free was most recently tested in 2007, after Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick proposed an innovative initiative whereby "every student's education would extend two years beyond high school, either through vocational training or college" free of charge, a plan which "would make Massachusetts the only state with no-cost community college" (Belluck).

This progressive approach to public education was celebrated by social activists and students across the state, but economists and academic elites voiced concerns that the plan was fiscally unfeasible. The overwhelming financial force applied by corporatized community colleges seeking to maintain the current tuition-based system was further demonstrated in 2012, when "lawmakers blocked [Patrick's] bid to rein in ballooning student fees -- funds which the Herald found the two-year institutions have been using to pay a high-priced Beacon Hill lobbyist to fight the reforms" (Smith).

Although a clear majority of citizens supported the Governor's efforts to reform the community college system in Massachusetts, the move toward statewide free community college was obstructed.