Berkley Center

Equal access to great education should be a right, not a privilege. I believe if the framers of the Constitution would have predicted how society has evolved were the only way to succeed, or even be able to makes ends meet if by pursuing higher education it would have been included in the constitution or bill of rights. I think it is our duty as citizens of a greater society to not be individualistic and promote equal access for higher education. Having an educated society will only guarantee that there will be greater social mobility for the individual, but the society itself will be able to move forward. I believe that if we promote equal educational opportunity the amount of people depending on social services will reduce, thus, meaning we will be able to allocate more money in other departments as well reduce our debt. Also, having more professionals means higher salary and more money going into the Treasury Department because of taxes.

In a moral sense, I believe that education should be equal and not a privilege, coming from a strong Catholic background, and attending a Jesuit university, I believe that when St. Ignatius of Loyola, created the Jesuit society to educate the masses, he would of never thought that years later, his core Ignatian values would have been capitalized and turned into private institutions. I do not think that it is the universities that are to blame for this atrocity that has happened to Ignatian values, but more so our individualistic society and the government and the policies that are in place. I believe, or at least I hope, that if universities are able to keep their prestige and resources by being publicly funded by the government or getting greater assistance from the government, education would not be a privilege or at least it will be more accessible. It is our moral civic duty to make education a right, not a privilege.