On the Real Value of One's Education: Vocation, Greed, and the Student Loan Crisis

At the beginning of another school year, I write this reminder:

The value of an education,

and especially higher education,

is not solely,

nor even primarily,

economic gain

(aka, the size of your paycheck).

Unfortunately, our country's dominant political narrative since the 1980's has been that it should be reserved as a luxury for the already, or perhaps soon-to-be, wealthy. This narrative has been increasingly reinforced with every recession, every collapse of an industry that required a college education, the soaring cost of college following government budget cuts, and of course, the U.S. student loan crisis.

Education, including early childhood education, PK-12, higher education, vocational education, continuing education, and lifelong education, should be a universal human right, available to every person who has the desire to learn and grow. This is how we move forward as a human society; and likewise, we break apart as a society whenever we try to restrict who has access to complete their education--whether by race, by gender, by religion, by nationality, or by economic status.

What the student loan crisis and the for-profit university scandals in the United States have taught us in these past few decades is that education should not become a commodity for profit, because it then becomes a weapon to do harm rather than to help people live into their full calling and vocation.

We will do well in this country to follow the example of many other countries in the rest of the world--to invest in our people and their education as a common good, for our common future--rather than denying people the opportunity or exploiting them financially due to their families' socioeconomic background.

--

2024, Rev. Le Anne Clausen de Montes. May be shared or reprinted with attribution. Le Anne is a graduate of Mason City Schools and Wartburg College in Iowa, and was an international human rights worker and peacemaker prior to seminary. She is working to create the Peace Center of North Iowa, and coordinates the Iowa Faith Leadership Network, We Parent Together, and The Way of St. Elizabeth. Le Anne's most recent published work is included in 'A Liturgy for All Bodies,' (Cyclical, 2023).