Education Is The Most Powerful Weapon

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This quote by Nelson Mandela exemplifies the importance of education in the world, and how with education, the world can be changed. However, this vital education is currently unevenly distributed even among the people in one country. Therefore, although there may be drawbacks, the government and more privileged members of society should strive to provide affordable education to all members of society. In the United States, the government is responsible for numerous roles which include ensuring the prosperity and positive growth of society and its people, provide infrastructure and stability, and provide general welfare. In relation to affordable education, providing affordable education to everyone can satisfy all of the responsibilities that the government has. By providing education, the intelligence of the general populace will increase, which will lead to economic and social growth in society because with more skills, people can perform higher level tasks. In the society, if one person does not have access to the affordable education, then it could be harmful towards that individual.

For example, while most others around the individual are advancing in society through affordable education, that one individual will fall further and further behind in education. Providing affordable education for all people has many advantages. As a whole, the people in society will advance together, not leaving individuals behind. Since it will be an affordable education, it will not be specialized for specific groups of people, but for everyone, therefore, conflicts revolving around lack of education would subside, creating a more peaceful society. Furthermore, as the general populace becomes more and more educated, crime rates would decrease as well because as general statistics show, people with higher education tend to not commit crimes.

With education for everyone, the work force would grow stronger and more diverse as people of many different backgrounds become more educated. This stronger work force would then provide the necessary skills to improve the society and general welfare of the nation. Although affordable education has many advantages, there are disadvantages as well. One big disadvantage is that conflict may arise over the source of money which would pay for the affordable education. With the current system in United States, taxpayers’ taxes would provide money for the program which could anger many taxpayers across the country.

Furthermore, the placement of money could cause hardships as people that do not have access to affordable education would not be able to advance in education like everyone else as mentioned earlier. On the other hand, people that do have access to affordable education would be providing for those that do not have access through paying taxes. Aside from problems that may arise due to financial reasons, there are other drawbacks. For example, the overall quality of education may decrease because the concentration of educational resources would be spread thin all across the United States. Also, if affordable education is provided for all people in the country, then immigration rates could increase drastically which could in turn stretch resources thin even more.

Furthermore, with more immigrants, number of students wanting education would raise the demand for competent educators to teach them, thus increasing the lack of resources. However, just because affordable education is provided for everyone, it is unlikely that all of the disadvantages would be present. Overall, there are many advantages as well as disadvantages. Although it may seem as if there are more disadvantages, the effect of the benefits would compensate for the drawbacks. The overall premise of providing affordable education is similar to the goals of Tiberius Gracchus’ land reform legislation in that social or general good outweighs the needs of an individual. Therefore, because of these reasons explained above, I believe the government is responsible for providing affordable education.