The Quora Chronicles – Part 7
“Are there any scholarships for learning English?”
Because my Quora profile identifies me as an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor and I am active in many ESL discussions, I am often “Asked to Answer” this type of question. Actually, this is one of the more tactful and sophisticated questions. Usually, the questions run more along the lines of, “I need English. You teach me – free?”
Teaching ESL is a second career for me. I started collecting a pension from my corporate job when I turned fifty-five, six years ago and so, I will occasionally take the ESL equivalent of “Pro Bono” clients. Currently, I have two. One is a long-time student who used to attend my in-person classes when I first started teaching through a non-profit organization back in 2013. The other is a young mother in Ukraine, because I figured that anybody deserves a “freebie,” it would definitely be someone who can survive in a war zone while raising a 5-year-old. Plus, even though I have Russian students too, whom I’ve grown to love as funny and delightful people, Putin’s actions are “out of order,” and I truly admire the Ukrainians’ bad ass, “No you didn’t try to just march in here and take our country” attitude.
I wondered, however, why there seemed to be so many requests along these lines. Is it because when people with limited English skills hear the United States described as, “the land of the free,” they are interpreting that literally? While I originally thought of this possibility as a joke, as I decided to dig a little deeper, I thought that perhaps there was a grain of truth in this theory.
Why? Well, because 27% of all of the other countries in the world offer at least two and, in some cases, four years of free or very low-cost higher education. Some are, predictably, the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. But others are a bit more surprising. Despite their recent economic problems Argentina offers free undergraduate tuition to both citizens and international students, and Greece allows students from European Union (EU) countries earn a bachelor’s degree at no cost and only charge international students about $1600 per year. Panama, whose economy was hit extremely hard by the pandemic, also offers free tuition to both citizens and international students. Even countries like Bosnia, Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Serbia, destroyed by war in the 1990s offer tuition-free, higher education. Austria, Brazil, Czech Repulic, Egypt, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Spain, Turkey, and Uruguay, Malaysia, and even Kenya all offer either free or reduced tuition higher education. So, when all of these nations, some very prosperous but others, not as much, have the ability to offer affordable higher education, expecting the self-described “richest country in the world” to follow suit is probably not completely unreasonable.
Curiously, it seems that some members of Congress and the constituency that they represent actually oppose free college. President Biden’s Build Back Better plan was stripped of its provisions for free Pre-K and 2 years of community college and there were certain factions of the American public who are outraged by the suggestion of forgiveness of student loans. But why?
One of the most common reasons for opposition both free education and universal health care seems to be Americans’ obsession with avoiding higher taxes. However, I think this may be a somewhat short-sighted view. We hear statistics all the time about how young people today are delaying marriage, homeownership, and having children because they are still trying to pay off crushing student loan debt. People working only to pay off past debt aren’t contributing to the current economy by purchasing homes and the consumer goods for those homes. Lack of homeownership also means that more young people are either living with their parents for much longer or renting. The high demand for rental property has driven the prices up. My husband and I experienced this firsthand. We sold our 3000 square ft., 5-bedroom house before the new townhouse that we were having built was ready. The monthly rent on the 1-bedroom apartment that we lived in for 9-months was actually higher than the mortgage payment on the home that we sold! We were lucky in that we could afford such a high-priced apartment. However, many people cannot, and this is evidenced by the growing rate of homelessness in the United States. According to HUD’s 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, more than 650,000 people in the United States lack permanent shelter. To put that in perspective, the cities of Las Vegas and Boston each have populations of roughly 650,000.
A report by the Urban Institute also tell us that older people are living longer while younger people are either delaying having children or not having them at all. Without younger workers entering the workforce, it will become increasingly difficult to support programs like Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare. In 1980, China instituted a one-child policy in an effort to control their growing population and stimulate economic growth. However, they were forced to abandon that policy in 2016, as birthrates fell well below replacement rates and fewer young people were available to enter the workforce as older workers aged out of certain jobs.
So, even though U.S. citizens are “enjoying” lower taxes that some of our neighbors around the world, are we really better off for it? How many of the homeless turn to drugs and crime and end up in the prison system? With fewer young people entering the workforce, how long will it take for Social Security and/or Medicare to collapse? Frighteningly, according to financial planning organization, Charles Schwab and other sources, not long at all. Without a major overhaul, these programs, on which so many of the elderly depend, may not be able to honor all of their financial commitments as early as 2033.
Other arguments against free higher education ranged from the selfish to the dangerous to sadly cynical. For example, one person wrote, “Even if education were free, poor people probably still wouldn’t go, since they wouldn’t be good students. So, our tax dollars would end up paying for rich students who don’t need free education.” (Umm…ok; so poor people aren’t as smart as other people? Bigoted much?)
Another said, “Education isn’t needed for survival. The majority of things learned in school are completely useless. In modern times information is freely available on the internet so there is no need for public education at all.” (How much do you want to bet this guy is a combination “doomsday prepper” and Q-Anon believer?)
Finally, and perhaps the saddest of all was this person, whose cynical view is probably closer to the truth that most of us would like to believe when he wrote, “A good education is the most dangerous threat to an oppressive regime. People with a good education are in the habit of asking why and refusing to follow tradition. They also demand credible evidence from a variety of sources, and their willingness to learn about everything makes them less likely to prejudge situations (or people) out of ignorance.” Perhaps, this is what former President Trump when he remarked, “I love the poorly educated.”
When I receive questions like, “Are there any scholarships for learning English,” I could go the selfish route and simply pressure those folks to sign up for private, paid lessons with me, but I don’t. I tell them to check for Adult Education classes in their community or non-profit literacy and ESL classes and tutoring sessions staffed by volunteers. I send them links to websites and social media groups where they can sign up for free language exchange partners. There are some who probably believe I’m foolish for doing that – “Doesn’t that cut in to your potential profits?” they ask (usually while clutching their pearls.) But the answer is, “No, it really doesn’t” because 1) I don’t have the capacity either one-on-one or in group lessons to teach every potential English learner who is out there; 2) some of them are so thankful for my help that they end up enrolling in paid lessons with me anyway or they refer their friends and family members who don’t have access to free programs in their areas; and 3) perhaps, most importantly, immigrants who have strong English skills are more likely to secure employment and less likely to turn to drugs or crime to cope with their circumstances. As long as we favor the attitude of “Us vs. Them” instead of “We’re All in This Together,” none of us will benefit in the long run.
References:
22 Countries with Free College
China’s Declining Birthrate Provides a Powerful Lesson for America
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report
quietlyradical 