In my argumentative essay, I explore if the education is too over commercialized by considering the positive and negative sides of its commercialization. It stands to reason that if the positive and negative sides exist in today’s education system, and if they exist in a very prominent way, then maybe the education system is too commercialized.
The commercialization of education was an inevitable step in a society where students are so easily able to get student loans. If students had to struggle harder, or if students were unable to get out of paying off their student loans, then commercialization of the education system would be more difficult. Colleges would have to fight harder to get students to join up and they would have to be more careful with the money they make. A college that tried too hard to over-commercialize would be neglected because students would search out colleges that offer them genuine value for the money they are spending. The fact that federal loans are so easy to get is the main reason why colleges can over commercialize the education system. Just because the opportunity is there, i.e. just because colleges can over commercialize, doesn’t mean that the system is over commercialized. One could say that even if the system is commercialized, there is still plenty space left before it becomes “Over” commercialized. (ReputationManagement.com, 2018)
The US government made it easy to get a student loan during the later Clinton administration when the US government could afford to pay off the student loans that students were defaulting on. The Obama administration made it even easier and cheaper to get a student loan, but the US was now in 20 trillion dollars of debt to China and couldn’t afford such an expense. The after-effect of these decisions are that colleges and Universities have put their prices up. Now that it is so easy to get a federal loan, the colleges are soaking up that money by raising their prices, adding unnecessary staff members, and buying fixed assets that they do not need. The money is out there, so colleges are finding ways to get it. This is one of the very negative sides to the over-commercialization of the US education system these days. (Borgohain, 2016)
If the education system is too commercialized, then one of the biggest downsides may be that degrees go up for sale, and that is indeed happening in our society. It is possible to get degrees very easily by signing up to classes, doing as little work as possible, having other people complete the coursework, and passing exams by the narrowest margin in order to get a degree. The only downside to having degrees for sale is that the student still has to dedicate at least some time to his or her education, but the time spent is minimal when compared to how much time people have to spend when earning their degrees. Part of the reason why degrees are so easily up for sale is because there is no way of knowing who wrote the coursework that students hand in. Unless a student fragrantly plagiarizes by being dumb enough to copy text verbatim, then college professors have no idea if the student wrote his or her college essay. In addition, colleges in a competitive environment are given an incentive to lower standards and make it easier to pass exams because they need to look good against their competition. (Wilkinson, 2016)
Conclusion
As I mentioned in my introduction, it is obvious that the education system is commercialized, but there is still room for more commercialization, which suggest the system is not “Too” over commercialized. There is still room for the commercialization of the US education system to become more robust and less insidious.
Bibliography
Borgohain, Swapnali. “Commercialization of Education system: A critical analysis.” International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies (IRJIMS) 1.XII (2016): 71.
ReputationManagement.com, 2018 “Academic Reputation Is the Most Important Factor in College Choice.” ReputationManagement.com, www.reputationmanagement.com/blog/academic-reputation-important-factor-college-choice/.
Wilkinson, Gary. “Marketing in schools, commercialization and sustainability: policy disjunctures surrounding the commercialization of childhood and education for sustainable lifestyles in England.” Educational Review 68.1 (2016): 56-70.
