Our president, in response to the greed-inflated cost of a college education today, has joined other politicians like our governor who say it is not necessary for all young people to go to college.

Technical training can provide an excellent career. Have greed and capitalism taken over our thinking so much that the only purpose of an education is to make more money?

My father was self educated and to his great shame had no high school diploma. His greatest dream was for his two children to go to college – not so we could be rich (he made a good living) but so we could understand history, literature and culture.

He wanted us to be better people, better citizens and to help make our community and our country a better place. He believed education could do this.

Technical training is excellent, but it does not create an “enlightened citizenry,” which, Thomas Jefferson said, “is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” Jefferson had dreams for this country, and we are falling far short.

We should be looking into how we can give any student who dreams of an education the chance to be a part of a college community in order to learn about history, philosophy and art. Let’s stop convincing ourselves that it really isn’t necessary. If we want to continue to be a democracy, we need an educated citizenry.

Many politicians would prefer an unenlightened citizenry that they can then manipulate more easily. Our young people deserve a bigger dream than to make a good living.

Valerie Razsa

Gray

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