In the past few weeks, I have been angered by people who argue in blogs that only rich people or the children of rich people should be allowed to go to good colleges and the American government shouldn't help the best and brightest become doctors, teachers, engineers, etc.
This reprehensible philosophy has become more accepted in the USA during the past 30 years and the results have been catastrophic. The USA was once the land of opportunity, but it now ranks among the worst among the world's advanced industrial nations in economic mobility.
The USA became the world's greatest nation by helping college students for decades via the G.I. Bill, public schools that charged no or close to no tuition, and other measures. The policies WORKED.
Nations throughout the world make sure that their students get free or low-cost education and invest heavily in education while the USA ranks 55th in percentage of gross domestic product spent on education.
And it's getting worse as many politicians do everything they can to make colleges a place for elites. During last year's presidential campaign, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney argued that the federal government shouldn't increase its help for college students despite a student loan debt crisis that threatens to destroy the lives of millions. His solution? Borrow money from your parents.
Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, proposed reducing the number of students who receive government grants for education by one million -- while increasing tax cuts for wealthy people. And Newt Gingrich said that minorities in high school should spend their time after school cleaning toilets when they need that time to improve their chances of being academically ready for college.
While the USA has been making getting an affordable education more difficult, many nations throughout the world have been investing in education. Many of those nations have surpassed the USA statistically in quality education measurements and many more will unless we change.
Below are some facts from an article I wrote about Mexico's commitment to college education.
MEXICO TRAINING TOP-FLIGHT ENGINEERS
Mexico's commitment to becoming a first-world nation is best reflected in its government's investment in improving the workplace skills and education of its citizens. Below are some facts that reflect Mexico's commitment to engineering students.
* “Mexico is now one of the top producers of engineers in the world,” Oscar Suchil, National Polytechnic Institute’s director of graduate affairs, told The Washington Post in an Oct. 28, 2012 article.
* From 2006-2012, Mexico built 140 universities and colleges. About 120 of those schools are focused on science and engineering. In 2012, Mexico had twice as many two- and four-year universities and colleges than it had in 2002.
* Mexico has almost as many students earning bachelor’s degrees in Engineering as the USA although its population is 115 million and the USA population is 314 million. Mexico had almost 76,000 students earning undergraduate engineering degrees in 2010, while the USA had about 83,000 students earning the same degree in 2011, according to the American Society for Engineering Education, the United Nations and the CIA. (Those were the latest years that statistics were available.)
* About 130,000 Mexicans earn degrees in technician-related subjects, including Engineering, from universities and specialized high schools annually. This is more than Germany and Brazil, which has about twice as many citizens as Mexico.
* Mexico subsidizes the cost of education for engineering students. Tuition for the approximately 98,000 engineering students at the public National Polytechnic Institute is $12 per semester. The number of college scholarships nationwide doubled from 2006 through 2012.
* Mexico is changing so rapidly that about half of Mexico’s citizens are in the middle class. By comparison, only about 40 percent of American citizens are in the middle class.
* Mexico’s workforce is becoming so skilled that companies such as Delphi, General Motors, and Honeywell employ hundreds of Mexican engineers in research & development (R&D) centers in Mexico, according toBloomberg Businessweek Magazine.
* "We constantly have major multinationals here trying to recruit dozens of engineers at a time," said Alfredo Juarez, a director at the National Polytechnic Institute, told Businessweek.
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