For millions of young people in America, the chances for a higher education are slight and few.
The costs are so high, and resources so lacking, that education has become an almost unattainable goal.
The massive privatization campaign, waged by businesses for generations, has boosted the growth of private schools and colleges, and these businesses are burgeoning, even as Black public schools are collapsing, and historical Black colleges are suffering for want of more students.
Is there a solution to this problem?
It is remarkable that a near neighbor, Cuba, offers free education, from kindergarten to college, to all comers. Even medical school is free -and Cuba trains doctors the world over.
Now, Germany has announced free education, not only for Germans – but for foreigners residing there. Their view is that education is a social good, and enables workers to contribute to society.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., costs keep rising, and enrollments keep slipping.
Some students gain an education, but they are then saddled with decades of debt – sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars for a professional degree.
America isn’t apt to follow Cuba’s lead, fearing that ‘taint’ of socialism.
But what about Germany, a country of 82 million people, the economic powerhouse of Europe?
Free education for all, may one day become an American idea.