Is higher education for the middle class dead?

For the record, when I attended UC Santa Cruz in 1982 the tuition was in the hundreds of dollars per quarter.  The big cost was housing.  Now, if the budget cut-obsessed have their way, the tuition for a UC education will be $20,000.00 per year.  Once they’re up, they’ll probably stay up.  I don’t think public school tuition has seen a decrease since shortly after the war – when we believed that an educated public was a good thing, and when we believed that those not in the aristocracy should benefit from a university experience.  Now middle class students attend junior college either hoping that they will be able to find some funding to transfer after two years, or they’re just focusing on trade development – becoming nurses, paralegals, etc.

The Bay Guardian thinks there’s another agenda at work.

Think about it: You graduate with $80,000 in debt, it’s much harder to work at a community-based nonprofit, or even as a teacher. God forbid you decide to go to law school or medical school; by the time you’re out, there’s no way you’re doing public interest law or working in a community clinic.

That, of course, is part of the hidden agenda here: The people who want tax cuts and small government also want to get rid of those pesky social change organizations and povery lawyers.

Of course, we’re exporting raw materials now in lieu of industrial manufacturing which in the post-Reagan military industry growth era is half of the government labor force – diametrically opposite the figures of 1960.  Basically, we are headed for third world country status.