Anthony's+Page

**I Believe Education is a Right.**

media type="file" key="Education is a Right.mp3" align="left" width="240" height="20" I believe education is a right. I believe that the youth across this country deserve the opportunity to attain a degree without having to pay an arm and a leg. As a student at the University of Colorado, I constantly see the importance of higher education. Whether it is a class that makes me think about something I had not thought of before, or the simple feeling of freedom and hope for the future I get when I walk around this campus, I know that what I am pursuing today is exactly what I need to reach the goals of my future. But despite my hopeful and idealistic feeling, I know that there are thousands of kids each year who can’t afford to go to college and even others aren’t receiving ample elementary or secondary education.

This morning I received an email from my best friend who is a teacher at an elementary school outside of Denver. She had received news that a couple schools in her district were going to be closing due to both performance and budget cuts. These children will be forced to move schools because the state can’t afford to keep them open. Kids should not have to be shipped to a different school because people don’t want to foot the bill. The United States has been termed “the land of the free,” yet many of our citizens are not able to receive a proper education. That is just one example among countless others this country over. Why is it that we can’t seem to understand the importance of education in the future of this country? Yes, we hear it in campaign promises and political conversation but the actual implementation of effective education policy is lacking.

Just as troubling, is the situation at the higher education level. Since I have been at CU I have been in a constant battle for higher education funding. In the last two years alone the higher education budget in Colorado has been cut by over 50%. That is a daunting statistic! Because of this stat Colorado is ranked 50th in the nation for higher education funding. This is truly saying something considering the struggling state of the education in the greater nation. We must educate the youth of this country beyond the secondary level, but in order to accomplish this the price tag needs adjustment. I believe that we all should have the ability to get a degree and not but turned away simply because of a thin wallet. I believe education is a right and I plan to continue to fight for that right, this I believe.

My Name is Anthony DeLaRosa and I am currently a Junior International Affairs major at the University of Colorado.