The Thursday Ramble*: Knowledge

Never in the history of humankind, have so many people, had such easy access to so much knowledge, information, and facts.  At the click of a keyboard and mouse, I can access an almost endless library.  I just have to ask the question, and then evaluate the answers to sort the real facts, from the alternative facts.  The internet as a resource is less than 50 years old.  

Earlier this year I read a book on the history of books. 250 years ago, public libraries as we know and love them in the United States, didn't really exist.  Libraries were private, belonging to institutions or individuals. The first lending libraries in the USA were membership organizations.  Each member paid an annual fee that was used to purchase books for the collection, that the member could then borrow from the library. Today I can walk into my local public library and borrow any book on the self, and they will order in for me anything in the system. Very much any question I have, the library can help me find the real facts; alternative facts are in the fiction section. 

I am fortunate to have earned and paid for a solid education.  I learned how to learn, how to structure inquiry that leads to facts, and rules, that lead to logical conclusions.  Only one of my grandparents had more than a grade school education (8 years of education.) And yet, they knew the basics of how to learn, how to read, how to frame an issue, how reach a conclusion based on the facts.  The challenge for them was often access to knowledge.  They left school to work on farms and in factories, to keep their families alive.  

Higher education has never been more available, or more unaffordable in the United States.  I have a four year degree, a BA degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.  Rollins is a nice private liberal arts college, frequently ranked as one of the best small colleges in the country.  Tuition and books are now estimated at $61,500 per year, nearly $250,000 (plus living expenses) for a University degree. I don't know what I paid, it certainly was not that much. I went to college part time, worked full time and paid for it as I went.  

In the United States, law is a graduate degree, a doctorate.  You have to have a four year University or college degree to be admitted to most law schools.  For law school, I went to a state school, with instate tuition, at the University of Louisville. Currently the cost of tuition, books and mandatory fees is just over $33,000 a year - and it is a three year program, overall the total would be right at $100,000.  This does not include living expenses, those are estimated at another $25,000 per year, at least they will let you borrow that much, meaning that most of the graduates from this mid-level state law school are going to owe about $175,000 when they finish.  When I finished in 1999, and I had borrowed what was allowed, based on the calculated cost of attendance, I owed about $45,000.  

Why has it gone up so much in 25 short years? States expect more from the Universities, and fund them with less money.  The state expects higher graduation and employment numbers, but has not increased in a meaningful way the funding needed to make that happen.  

When Joe and Kamala talk about forgiving student loans, they are is really saying the Federal Government will pay off the loans. In essence the government is spending money today, that it should have spent over the past 25 years supporting higher education.  

An educated populus earns more, makes better informed decisions, commits fewer crimes, helps to build a better society.  Educated people are more likely to be able to tell the difference between facts, and alternative facts.  

 *Ramble, or is it more of a rant?