Argument One

Argument: 

How can colleges like Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton charge such exorbitant tuition which basically shuts out the poor from attending and relegating the poor to the state schools?  The rich ensure the success of their children by giving them entry to the finest institutions of higher learning in the country and ensuring success in their life.

The poor are disadvantaged from the very start beginning early in life.  The level of education students received in the lower income schools have many problems.   They do not have the best teachers, facilities are lacking, supplies are lacking, text books are inferior and the schools in many instances are not located in the best areas.  As noted in the book “Savage Inequalities” which shined the light on the East St. Louis schools, they had a high school next to a Monsanto Plant inflicting dangerous health concerns on the students.  Contrast this to wealthy neighborhoods, the students have the best of everything and have advantages the poor neighborhoods are lacking.  “Black children who grow up in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and unemployment have a 76 percentage of graduating from high school compared to a 96 percent chance for black students living in affluent neighborhoods” (Huffington Post, 12/4/11).  So, not only do poor students get the shaft on their education many don’t even get the chance to apply to colleges because they do not graduate from high school.  The affluent areas virtually guarantee they will go to college guaranteeing a successful future.  The wealthy make sure their own children are successful and stack the deck against poor and underprivileged.   The poor have a very difficult and tough road to hoe.  For the poor it is like they are pushing a rock up a hill with the wealthy standing on it while they are pushing it.  I like in the Rich and the Rest Of Us it says “Are Americans just mouthing a cliché when they say “the children are our future”.  Or perhaps Americans aren’t talking about all of our children.  Maybe, in America, we’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that only those who live in the right zip codes deserve a quality education” (The Rich and the Rest of Us pg 119).

The wealthy students have a lot of choices available to them.  Schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford have very strict academic requirements/standards and the tuition at a private school like one of these is cost prohibitive to any of the poor.  If the students in the poor communities do graduate they are even more disadvantaged.   These students need a 4.0 plus to get into these schools.  The environment in the less affluent Secondary Schools they come from does not foster them getting a 4.0 plus.  There are a lot of distractions and adversities they have to overcome.  They don’t have the same support system as the wealthy students.  If a poor student is able to achieve and meet the academic standards, they have to overcome the cost factor.  These schools are EXPENSIVE.  Harvard is very proud to advertise they provide “financial assistance” to low income students.  They advertise how they help the poor and disadvantage, but the reality is “Families with students on scholarship pay an average of $11,500 annually toward to the cost of a Harvard education” (Harvard Gazette 2011).  This figure does not include room, board, transportation, books and other living expenses.  This means a college education (tuition alone) will cost over $45, 000.  How many poor people can afford this amount?  The poor are relegated to the state schools leaving the Ivy League to the wealthy.   “I would say the surprising, shocking, disgusting thing is that not only do we not help people who are having trouble or are sliding down, we kick them a little further.  The whole system is rigged so that if you start to spiral down, you’re going to spiral faster.  There’s no ladder going up.  There’s a greased chute going down” (The Rich and the Rest of Us pg 75).

I feel this is deplorable in the richest country in the world and is a big black mark on our society.  This is something you do not see in the press and a fact that is not heavily advertised.  It really disturbs me to see how Harvard like to boast how they are helping the poor, but in fact when the average student on a scholarship is paying over $46, 000 for a four year degree (without room and board) is hypocrisy at its’ finest and certainly nothing to be boasting.