Mowbray off target on education
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Editor,
Thank you, Sen. Mowbray, for your response. However I think it is important to revisit the factual basis of several of your points.
First of all, Salish Kootenai College, while a wonderful resource to have at our doorstep here in the Mission Valley, is the same price as a chapter of the Montana University System for a year of tuition for non-descendants, at $6,000.
Books and fees are not optional expenses; they are necessary expenses that students must pay in order to take and pass their classes.
Room and board is a major expense, yes. It is also necessary, however, and costs less than it does to live on your own in college. Living at home is not even an option for many people, and for many more, it is far from an empowering option. To stick with the theme of your latest letter, I fail to see how living under our parent’s roofs for an additional four years will add to our sense of empowerment.
College is becoming anything but a personal choice, as unemployment of non-college graduates rises at much faster paces than those of college graduates, and college graduates also make much more, and in turn contribute to our economy much more. There are very few paths that do not require a college education anymore, Sen. Mowbray, and this current situation is a recipe for driving students away to other states. People cannot assume the debt a college education requires nowadays and then return to Montana, which obviously needs to change.
Our generation faces many personal choices, Sen. Mowbray. We are inheriting this country at a critical time, and I hardly think that turning our students away from higher education is the correct path to be on at this point.
Peregrine Frissell
Polson
