A Random Thought on Education

So, since my life - like that of any other university student revolves around writing term papers and fretting over tuition (right now with emphasis on Feb. 7th Day of Action) I thought that I would search out what each party thought about post-secondary education... in my search, I stumbled upon the Conservative party website (I think I felt my eyes burning when the site loaded on my computer...). Upon the site loading, and scrolling around to find where their education policy fit in - I finally found "education" towards the bottom of their list of issues. What was on the top? "Action for London" and "Action for Business"... education is at the bottom of the list.

Now, due to thinking in a lecture frame of mind (again, because I spend all day in lectures and writing papers), I began to think, "maybe this somehow signifies the imporantance of education on their demented self-serving agenda." Could this be entirely wrong? I don't think so...

Again, after scrolling to the very bottom of the document of their manifesto, after reading all about "child dicipline" and the like, I finally reached the part about post-secondary... which offered solutions such as:

• They will "replace student fees and government grants to universities with a new system of government-funded National Scholarships to meet the cost of educating students
  
  Um... how about grants? While scholarships are nice, how about offering a solution that will actually help those in need of financial assistance?
  
• "Scrap the Government's arbitrary target for 50 per cent of young people to go to university."
  
  Doesn't this go against individuals RIGHTS to an education? Or how about that delightful phrase "no child left behind"? Silly me, here I thought people going to university was a useful endeavour.
  
• "To improve student finance, a Conservative Government will abolish Labour's student fees and reform the student loan system"
  
  How do I put this lightly... FUCK THAT. Student loans, paired with increasing tuition IS THE PROBLEM! The typical answer for those with the fat-wallets; how about putting yourself in the shoes of someone from a family that is lower/middle income and downward, trying to pay for their education out of their own pocket? I bet some of those people would be biting their tongue if the shoe was on the other foot.
  
• "A new, independent Student Loans Trust. Students will pay a low commercial interest rate, but will be able to borrow higher amounts to replace expensive credit card and overdraft debts"
  
  Um... again, IT'S NOT THE ANSWER! While it's the "conservative solution", all that will result will be millions of university students being extremly angry, and being bogged down in student debt for the rest of their lives. Isn't it grand that for an education, one will carry with them a life sentence? Harper, how about you try going to university today - I bet you wouldn't be able to handle it - you expect us to? The generation that will be spoon-feeding you jello in your own age?