The importance of Accessible Higher Education

Throughout the country, municipal elections have consistently low voter turnout rates when compared to congressional and presidential elections. This is in part due to the belief that municipal seats affect citizens less than federal states. However, when it comes to the issue of education, and the importance of higher education, we see how important municipal seats are. Throughout the United States, only 38 states and D.C. require high-school students to complete a civics or government course. Of these states, only seven require students to attend a full semester course, with the rest only requiring students to take the course for half of the semester. Many have questioned why students’ political beliefs change when they attend a higher education institution. The reason, in part, is due to college students having the opportunity to receive in-depth lessons about our government and voting system, and have their eyes opened to barriers that they have faced when voting.

College also exposes students to people from different backgrounds and communities, and the barriers they face due to our government. For these reasons, as well as numerous others, a college education has become crucial and valuable for one’s professional and personal life.

However, a college education has become increasingly less accessible due to rising cost of attendance and rising cost of living. Democrats in Congress and the White House have attempted to remove these barriers by forgiving federal student loans that cripple so many Americans financially. However, with a conservative majority, the unbiased Supreme Court rejected President Joe Biden’s plan.

Understandably, those who would have benefited from this plan have expressed confusion and anger, as 13 Republican members of Congress benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Each of the Republicans received between thousands or millions of dollars that had supposedly been canceled under said pandemic-era program, yet they harshly oppose financial plans that would help roughly 43 million Americans. The Biden administration has announced the SAVE Plan, a repayment plan that offers lenient terms and lowering monthly payments to zero dollars. In as little as 10 years, any remaining debt will be canceled. Republicans have already begun pushing back against the SAVE Plan.

So what is the solution? The cost of college education may always be an issue of division in our federal government. What we can do is ensure students are receiving all the facts about our government before entering adulthood, in order to help them be able to make informed decisions regarding their future and their votes. By providing free education about our government at a young age, our young population will be able to make changes that we currently fight for.

In order to do this, we must protect our education system. This happens at the polls during local elections, which is why they are perhaps the most important elections we have to make our voices heard. This year, let Rideshare2Vote help you make your voices heard by booking a Ride2Vote blue as all elections matter.

by Delany Doggett