by Jeremy Hohertz

Created on: October 05, 2008

A college education should be both available to many and reserved for few. These choices are not exclusive by any means, though the realization of both has become increasingly difficult in today's culture.

Before any debate on this topic can be fully waged, it is important to clearly define what a college education is, or perhaps, what it should be. Many pens have been guided by many great minds over this issue, and no consensus has ever been reached. My favorite definition for a college education comes through the back door of our current laws. Every child is given the right (and responsibility) of attending school through age 18, at which point these children are considered adults capable of entering the "real world," if you will. Our laws, which may or may not be arcane in this matter, were designed for the majority of Americans, to give them an education thorough enough for them to enter the work force or begin apprenticeship programs for particularly skilled jobs. College was reserved for the thinkers and academics whose primary tools were their brains. College was their apprenticeship program.

In the course of just a few decades, America has seen the gap between secondary school and jobs widen. A larger workforce and advances in technology now require a higher level of thinking from the entry-level workers, while in many ways the quality of secondary education has decreased across the board. Colleges have become the de facto stop-gap in the system, giving students four more years of training before taking their first jobs. In order to accommodate the influx of students, colleges have in many ways needed to adopt standards lower than those from the days when only the elite thinkers graced their halls.

And what of those elite thinkers? Many spend four years in college, then must continue to graduate schools in order to better their educations or to prove through more advanced degrees that they are members of the intellectual class. But many do not last that long. Many bright students burn out in college, disinterested in spending time on material that is not at their level, or covering material at a pace that is too slow.

In the mean time, colleges have been able to increase tuition virtually at will because the demand outstripped supply. Financial obstacles have again precluded many bright thinkers from attending college, or from attending highly-ranked (usually highly expensive) colleges. Students of all types have tried valiantly to afford their education,

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