British cuts are taking hold and like the French, the British have taken to the streets- this time, it's the students, protesting plans to raise tuition fees and cut higher education by 40%. 50,000 students and lecturers marched through London and the protest was marred by violence, as windows were broken and flares were thrown in to the ruling Conservative Party's HQ in Central London.
I have to admit, I'm both impressed and kind of cynical about the whole thing. Major points to the British Students for the moxie to get organized and do it- double bonus points for trashing the ruling elite's HQ: if that was the kind of thing American students did on a semi-regular basis, I can guarantee you that tuition costs wouldn't be exploding so much. It'd be the kind of thing that would attract some attention, that's for sure.
I'm cynical, because the British are in a tizzy over plans to raise fees to 6,000 to 9,000 pounds a year. That's roughly $9600-$14502 and it's sort of laughable, because your average American student graduates with something like $23,500 in debt- that's 14,500 pounds. The one hundred most expensive college in the US range from roughly $46,000 to $54,000 a year in tuition or 28,546 to 33,500 pounds a year, so welcome to the cold hard reality of paying for a University education, kids. The days of wine and roses are over and done with and it could be a lot worse.
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