What Society Loses When Market Values Rule Education

By Johnny Carniello / Fall 2019

As our country transformed into a capitalistic society, our public systems also morphed, from a common collective to an individualist perspective.  Education, an established public good, has become more and more privatized, shifting the burden from the government onto the students themselves.  This change begins to contrast with the ideal’s universities stand by, including educating the masses and having a student-centered school.  Due to diminished governmental aid, the burden falls on the consumer of this new commodity called education.  The rising cost of college forces students to stress and strain over the price, debating if the benefit of education outweighs the risk of likely significant student debt.  Education has been called the great equalizer, and this was very true for our parents and past generations. While the benefits of education still very much exist within society today, the financial burden it now brings is greater than ever.  The large entry cost of college perpetuates the class system, helping the rich who can afford the considerable cost and harming the poor who don’t have the same resources.  Minorities, who unequally fall in the lower tiers of the class structure, are affected by these costs in larger proportions.  This privatized public education system, a contradiction even within its name, will serve to harm the common good and perpetuate the neoliberal system.

The education system, as it has become, is an urgent problem for students and our entire society.  With the move to a neoliberalist approach, government funding for schools have drastically decreased.  This leads to universities looking for and accepting students from wealthier families, those who can quickly pay off the surmounting expenses.  This added aspect makes universities act more like a business, straying from the ideal of educating the masses.  This ideal is now second to the financial outlook, to keep the university operating and marketing itself.  As a result, universities accept more out of state, wealthy students, reducing the number of low-income students.  Even if a low-income student gets accepted into a seemingly biased selection system, they will still contend with the considerable cost of attending.  For a majority of students, not just the low-income, the only option will be to take out student loans to combat the cost; about 69% of students take out loans and 14% of parents doing the same, with the average loan totaling about $30,000 (Student Loan Hero).  This large amount of student debt will follow them well after they leave school, adding to their growing list of expenses. Students who are able to obtain an education, the so-called great equalizer, are bound to their debt, hindering their future beyond their education.  A consequence of rising costs is the professional career a student may choose to follow. The student may choose to pursue a career that is considered to have high market value within the neoliberal values of society, instead of pursuing a career they are passionate about.  Certain professions aren’t seen as high in market value and are paid less because of it.  The education system tends to steer away from these areas of study, often giving them less resources.  Even within my own school, the Rady School of Business is a huge, recently constructed building, containing the nicest lecture halls and conference rooms in the school.  The system also forcibly upholds individualistic ideology that causes students to compete against their peers instead of working in tandem with them.  The same students that you are supposed to befriend, are the ones you’re supposed to claw over to get to the top.  This ideology supports toxic competitiveness, not a strong and healthy work ethic.  The flawed education system adheres too closely with neoliberal values that undermines their commitment to the students and the future. 

While the rising cost of college and student debt disproportionately harms low-income students, it also is disproportionately harmful in terms of gender and race.  It is easy to see rising college costs and student debt as a non-gendered issue.  Women represent a little over a half of people enrolled in colleges nationwide, yet they account for about two thirds of the national student debt (Student Debt Through the Gender Lens).  The combination of decreased government aid and the gender pay gap are leading reasons why women own a disproportionately large amount of the student debt.  The added pressure a woman faces in society culminates into a more drastic dilemma compared to their male counterparts.  Because of this ever-lasting expense, women are less likely to meet essential bills like rent (Student Debt Through the Gender Lens).  We can also look through the lens of race pertaining to gender.  The article states that Black and Latino women are the most affected and most likely to not be able to afford an essential expense.  Women of color experience the problem of rising college costs differently from men or even white women.  This added risk minorities and women face further deters their choice to attend a university.  A new study concluded that as college tuition rises, diversity falls (Morrison).  Minorities are beginning to reevaluate the true cost of college and are often unable to justify the expense.  Losing minorities’ influence within a college and even society can greatly harm the culture and attitude of those within it.  Again, this strays away from the notion of educating the masses.  The rising costs are pushing away the minorities at a quick rate causing the proportions of race in college to shift.  

While these problems are apparent, especially those experiencing its effect, society is too focused on neoliberal values to unite and address the issue.  These neoliberalism values shifted the idea of education from a public good to a more privatized, business-like model.  This model doesn’t properly serve the common good, instead perpetuating the system by focusing on certain subjects that support their way of thinking and a high cost that allows only the rich to excel straight out of college.  The privatization of public goods such as this, is an overarching problem within our society.  As more previously public goods are becoming privatized, the burden is now falling onto the people.  While the rich can afford it, the middle and lower classes are seriously hurt by this, falling into a new class called the precariat.  Living in “existential insecurity”, middle class and lower-class families now face new expenses that were not previously a problem for past generations (Standing).  One way to reverse the effects of this system would be to once again increase government spending, to change its outlook from a commodity back to a public good.  This would be fairly unlikely as the rich and powerful, who adhere to neoliberalism values, would lobby and sway politicians from ever attempting such a thing.  With the rich and powerful blocking ordinary change from happening, we must use extraordinary means to procure change.  The slowly changing sentiment of the people will not solely be enough, a large demonstration of beliefs must occur to put pressure on those in charge, the politicians and influential upper class.  This act of solidarity would also be rare because the neoliberal individualistic values that many people subconsciously abide by.  The system has taught the population that if you fail, that it is your fault with no possibility that the system is the one to blame.  Aspects of this part of society are awfully similar to a hegemonic one.  Many people are born and brought up being taught these values, they are engrained within each person.  We would need to look at the system analytically to notice the contradictions within our society.  Even so, those who know of the contradictions still need to either try and radically change society or just abide by its rules, usually the later.  The obstacles that are preventing action are so deeply woven into the values of society that it would be difficult to change without a concerted effort from everyone.

The ideas behind neoliberal values provides a sort of paradox to people within our society.  Society has programmed everyone into thinking and acting a certain way, with non-conforming thought being punished.  I think seeing the world through the lens of neoliberal values, while it may promote individualistic success, considerably harms the world and disenfranchised living in the margins.  Rather, it is important to take a step back and see the world in a connected sense.  King expressed this sentiment beautifully, calling it the “world house”.  Instead of focusing on the atomized individual, everyone should view life as a part of a collective, a family separated by culture, by race, by great and many things, but a family, nonetheless.  This interconnectedness allows us to witness the injustices that plague many within our nation, within the walls of our world house.  We can no longer stand idly by, no longer see other races as separate, for they are a member of our family, a member who faces injustice.  The common good should be praised above all else, for this uniting principle will combat the inequitable teachings programmed into us.  If the population realizes the importance of the common good, the problems plaguing the world can start being addressed.  Within the education system, we could start addressing the rising costs that disproportionately harm the disenfranchised, the attitude within colleges that bring some people up but also pull some down, the proclaimed student-centered colleges that are massively influenced from outside corporate entities. The idea of the world house, everyone acting in solidarity and to aid the common good, is what can illuminate the minds of people, giving them the ability and courage to overcome the obstacles that will be ever present on their journey.   

Accepting these principles that defy the programmed values of society will be tough yet rewarding, both enflaming and setting your mind at ease.  College students are those directly affected and reasonably should be the ones who act with the most unity toward overcoming the problems within the education system.  Protesting and emphasizing the problems of the system, students need to put pressure on their own colleges.  The main goal of students will be to compel their respective colleges to make active choices against the currently constructed system.  There is a high cost for those willing to spend the time trying to better the system.  They could potentially have to take another semester or quarter to finish college, as they are devoting so much time to benefitting their cause, and not focusing on schoolwork.  This enormous added cost is an example of the system deterring change.  But, it is for this reason that change is necessary, is needed to benefit the system and its inhabitants.  The influence of protesting students must be greater than the influence of the wealthy and corporations, those who constructed and preserve the system.

People will also need to work on corporate leaders and the wealthy in general, whose influence is much greater and can span much further than those being currently affected.  If we are able to reshape their beliefs to a more liberal outlook, they should be able to recognize the plights and problems that the system forces upon those trying to navigate it.  Attacking the issue from a different side, these corporate leaders will act complementarily with the students.  Instead of maintaining of the system, they will work on issues of the college system, derail it from the corporate perspective.  If colleges begin to see some of their business partners and benefactors acting to change the system, they are more likely to make actual change. 

The issues of the education system, even if they don’t affect you personally, indirectly impact our entire society.  Education shapes the present and future generations that will soon run all facets of the nation.  If this generation goes through the education system that is bogged down by neoliberalist values, the problems of increased costs, decreased diversity, and emphasis on high market value, then the whole population will suffer. Addressing these issues is essential for creating a person-oriented society, not an external thing-oriented society (King).  People should care about changing the values of the system that influences each and every person in our country because it will not only benefit the future, but the present as well.  The shift in values will also naturally lead to a shift in ideology toward liberalism of the 1960s.  Toxic individualism will be replaced by solidarity, a thing-oriented society with a person-oriented one.  An increased awareness of the common good should allow those with less resources more opportunity to shine and shape the world.  Education can once again become the great equalizer for disenfranchised groups of the precariat.  People should support the efforts to reverse the neoliberal programming within education so the good of all can be the primary focus.  People need to see that we have the ability to unite under single purpose, not necessarily because it benefits us individually, but because it benefits all of society.  I believe these unifying principles are meaningful and needed if we are to combat any other global problem. 

Work Cited

King, Martin Luther. “The World House.” The Pluralism Project, 1967.

King, Martin Luther. “Beyond Vietnam Speech.” Zinn Education Project, 4 Apr. 1967.

Miller, Kevin. “Student Debt through the Gender Lens.” AAUW, 1 Sept. 2017.

Morrison, Aaron. “College Tuition Increase: Racial Diversity Drops As Costs Go Up, Study Finds.” International Business Times, 24 Apr. 2015.

Standing, Guy. “Meet the Precariat, the New Global Class Fueling the Rise of Populism.” World Economic Forum, 9 Nov. 2016.