Equal Access To Education In America
The underlying American economic philosophy is that competition of private businesses will produce businesses that are more inclined to satisfy the needs of the people. Where did this idea of competition over all else come from? It comes from a dark time in American history where the ideas of pseudoscience, especially social Darwinism, were all the rage. Why is an idea in social science relevant to economics? To higher education?
Because it was during this time that Americans took the pseudoscientific ideas and took them a step further by arguing that the poor were poor and the rich were rich as a result of their actions. When assessing “access” to a commodity, like education, cost is nearly always the dominant factor because of this capitalistic American mindset and the idea that education has been viewed more as a luxury commodity than a necessity in American society. If it were viewed as a necessity, there would be so much more government subsidies and incentives in existence that the cost of attendance would be like that of other countries that currently view education as a necessity, like Germany or Norway. As a result of this, as costs of attendance for American institutions have risen, American administrations have been reluctant to subsidize what is considered a non-necessity.
Why do Americans, particularly politicians, view education to be a luxury and not a necessity? Because only the rich are the most educated. Why does this matter? Because Americans think that all wealth is earned and inheritance is irrelevant (from social Darwinism). Why does this matter? Because the inherited upper-class generate an exclusive system for their generations to grow and accumulate in wealth from their education. Meanwhile families who do not have educational history, like first-generation students, are excluded from this system all the while it becomes more exclusive due to rising tuition prices.
Where does the ideology of social Darwinism become relevant? It is relevant when realizing that Americans, as a result of the evolution of the idea of social Darwinism, believe that this unequal accumulation of wealth simply for having a longer presence in America ancestrally is merit-based and righteous and that the poor and uneducated are blamed for their situation despite the actual existence of this system which continues to increase the inequality of wealth and therefore access to well-connected institutions of higher education.
Community colleges have done a significant job in changing this access but accessibility to education at top-tier research institutions and the benefits of attending such reputable institutions are still limited to the few who have family connections at such institutions or the financial means to address their academic shortcomings when applying to college (i. e private tutors, money to retake tests, money to apply to schools, etc. ).
