And+now+in+Current+Events

=And Education Today...=

Is it possible that after many years of education reformation and the great riches that the United States has gained, many of the educational issues still stand? Well it appears as if public education still stands problematic, for there are many barriers that prevent it from being successful in a great number of aspects, we can tie this back to many instances and events that were encountered in, //the Adventures of Huckleberry Fin.//

Now a day a great number of public high school students look forward to graduating and continuing their education in college. Fortunately there are a lot of programs that help with scholarships, grants, and loans. But for those who find themselves dispossessed from these programs what comes after high school lingers as a blur. But just as Huck, being a poor boy with no sense of direction nor long terms views of where the future would take him, suffered from not having proper education as do many low-income students today. Even though the United States is the richest country and the one standing as the most powerful in the world, many well deserving students are suffering from under-representation in the college/university realm.

Some of the problems faced by the less providential students consist mainly of tuition costs, racial discrimination, social disadvantages, and unawareness. Do these barriers sound familiar? Because they mirror the issues that Huck was experiencing over 200 years ago. Has the United States not gotten anywhere? Why after hundreds of years, is America suffering with issues that opposed a problem way long ago? What is it that we have learned? The average tuition and fees at public four-year institutions recently increased by 14 percent, from $4,115 in 2002-03 to $4,694 in 2003-04 (College Board, 2003).

It’s astounding how many billions of dollars actually do go towards all the programs dedicated to help the students, but it is still not enough! It is extremely sad that the poor are 32 percent less likely to send their children off to college than the rich. Some believe that the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 benefited students from middle and upper class families more than students from needier families, since the tax credits that it present were //not// need based.



P4 JCORONA