English 1A
08/10/2013
Essay Paper #1
“In Defense of Elitism” Essay.
College, why do we go there? Perhaps it’s to find a career you enjoy, or it’s to find a career that pays well, maybe even having the opportunity to be able to escape the “hard labor”. The comparison between college and money is not as simple as it seems. College graduates unquestionably do better wealth wise than those who don’t go at all. So could this be the reason we as people strive to go to college and get our education going? Half a century ago it was a privilege to be able to go to college, and a high school diploma was meant as a symbolic credential. Going to college back in the day was proof of your achievements and hard work, as for in today’s times …show more content…
But have these people and students thought about how much money they have to pay colleges, or even get loans to be able to pay for college, would cost them? As William A. Henry III said, “The total bill for a higher education is about $150 billion per year with two-thirds of that money being run on by taxpayer funds.” Looking at this article from a taxpayers perspective, I would agree with William A. Henry due to the facts he stated in his article including him saying, "merely for having completed high school; that in turn may be a reward simply for having shown up, or for having grown too tall to be kept back"(Henry 1994: l53). Imagine as a taxpayer that you have to be the one paying for these students schooling, in which those students take out loans and grants and many of those are never fully repaid. With his stating that fact all the taxpayers should be concerned to where their money is going. For example if a taxpayer is going to pay taxes, those tax dollars should go to students that will help this economy grow stronger and make it a brighter future for America. Since private schools also use the same funding and student loans are never fully repaid, in my opinion the taxpayers should not have to pay those taxes where people just take advantage