If you are a college student, the concepts of high tuition and student loans aren’t foreign to you. In fact, college costs have risen by 1,120% since 1978, and according to the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, more than 40 million Americans are holding 1.2 trillion dollars in student loan debt. Despite these alarming statistics, the notion of costly tuition and student loans has been practically uncontested. Until now.
On November 12, 2015, an interesting social movement materialized: A large group of current and former college students united for a day of action called the Million Student March. More than 115 colleges participated in organizing rallies and marches on college campuses to fight for education as a human right. The protesters had three very clear demands: Tuition-free public college, cancellation of all student debt and a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers.
The students carried signs with clever slogans such as: “Education is a right, not just for the rich and white,” “We are students, not customers,” and “Education should not be a debt sentence.” The marches were largely organized through social media, with the hashtag #MillionStudentMarch trending wildly.
As a college student myself, I found these protests intriguing and started to conduct some more research. At first, I was surprised to read of the large and overwhelming amount of criticism directed at this movement. But I soon began to understand the critiques. Many people were calling the protesters entitled, whiny and even delusional. They lashed out saying that students should work hard in school to get scholarships, go to community college or just get jobs. Their message was that nothing in this world is free and you should not expect handouts.
The primary reason I started to doubt this group though, was the impracticality of their demands. I watched a cringe-worthy interview on YouTube where one of the national organizers of the movement, Keely Mullen, was ripped to shreds by interviewer Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network. After she conveyed the demands of the movement in the beginning of the interview, he asked her the simple question of how it would all be paid for. After much stumbling, she replied that the top one percent of the country should pay 90% in taxes for the demands to be achieved. Cavuto then answered that even taxing the richest of the country by one hundred percent, would still not cover the costs of covering student debt alone. This interview went on for nine long minutes and did nothing to help promote the movement.
What initially attracted me to this movement in the beginning was the idea of fighting a system that requires college students to pay an enormous amount of money and put themselves and their parents in lifelong debt, for the sake of education. However, I now realize that by making such lofty demands they are dooming themselves from the beginning.
The main problem with the Million Student March Movement is that they don’t seem to have a grasp on the principles of economics. There simply isn’t enough money to make college free and forgive student debts. I admire their passion however, and think they make a lot of very interesting points. It is true that college has gotten to be quite unaffordable and that having a college degree is no longer optional but a requirement for employment. Perhaps if the movement would simply scale back their demands to something more feasible, they could have a chance at making a real impact for college students.
It is interesting to note that according to Time.com, when student organizer, Kyle Butts, was asked if the ambitious goals of the group were purposely set high to simply make a statement, he answered no, and that he thinks that the goals are achievable. He added, “We’re not delusional and think that this one day of action creates solutions, but our goal was to create a national dialogue about this topic. This was just stage one.” I, for one, am definitely interested to see what stage two is going to bring and I hope that for all our sakes, it involves some realistic solutions.
What do you think of the Million Student March movement?