"I moved here recently", said a man with an iPad. He agreed that that "Everything is expensive in Chicago" than in Washington state. He agreed that all the fees are higher in Illinois.
Susan from Chicago had an opinion. "In politics, people stub from the back" that she does not want to talk about the coming up election. "I do not know yet", she said to my question who she would vote for President. In opinion polls, President Obama leads over Romney, I told her. I can not describe her reaction to that comment. It was a mixture of "of course" and "is that right?".
The car garage is not a good place to talk politics, I found out. People come to garage to fix some problems that they have with their cars. The car is being fixed, or at least they have the assessment of the damage. It may cost them dearly.Chicago is the President's home town. There are a lot of ardent supporters here. In Susan's reaction, I sort of sensed some bitterness on apparently a small victory of the President and the Democrats.
President Obama in his weekly address talked about the transportation bill and student loan bill and urged the Congress to pass them. Both of the measures are agreed upon by their principles by the both parties. The Congress is to discuss how to fund them.
The President referred to the issue of tuition hikes. How did it become so expensive to go to college?
One of the reason is the high pays to the administrative division. A successful head of the institution may get millions per year. Is it right? Should the educational institutes run for profit? In that case, why should they receive our tax money?
The amount of student loans now exceeds the credit card loans in the United States. The high cost of education limits the choices of students in selecting the schools that they want to attend. The schools lose good students if the pay is the criteria of selection students.
Teaching is an essential aspect of any culture. It is a process of passing knowledge to others for public good. Selling the information which they have received free from their predecessors if not unethical then does not give the taxpayers for incentive to support for the institution.
Let us hope the budget cuts will not affect the quality of the education in the States and that the institutes can manage well financially and do not burden the students with high tutitions.