If we were able to put more into education, we might be, as better-educated people, better able to identify the two places where we have actually been putting our money and why we should not have been. Those two places have been the Pentagon and the pockets of billionaires. Wouldn't it be better to direct more money toward education? Tell Congress to pass the College for All Act. The latest military spending bill is over $850 billion. The majority of U.S. tax dollars fund a war machine with more money than the next 10 countries combined, 8 of those 10 being U.S. weapons customers pressured by the U.S. to spend more. Today's U.S. military budget exceeds those of the Reagan years, the Vietnam years, and the Korea years. Returning to the pre-Endless-War-on-Terror spending level of 2000 would mean a 44% cut. Returning to the level of that golden day of conservative righteousness, 1950, would mean a reduction of 81%. The richest 1% of people in the world amassed almost two-thirds of new wealth created in the last two years, Oxfam says. The United States has wider disparities of wealth than any other major developed nation. As reported at Inequality.org, "According to Institute for Policy Studies analysis of Forbes data, the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by $2.071 trillion (70.3 percent) between March 18, 2020 and Ocobter 15, 2021, from approximately $2.947 trillion to $5.019 trillion. Of the more than 700 U.S. billionaires, the richest five (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Elon Musk) saw an 123 percent increase in their combined wealth during this period, from $349 billion to $779 billion." The College for All Act would make community college free for everyone. It would make public colleges and universities free for families with income under $125,000. It would also make tuition free at private, nonprofit historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions for families with income under $125,000. We can afford to make higher education a right, rather than a special privilege. We can't afford not to. Click here to tell Congress now.  |
