Pritzker Fellow Peter Meijer on "Education & the American Dream"

(Current UChicago Students Only)

Monday, March 27

12:30-1:45 PM

Education and the increased economic prospects it offers are essential to James Truslow Adams' definition of the American Dream as being “opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.” If there is one area where the American Dream has slipped further out of reach, it has been the education sector.

In 1970, just six weeks of full-time minimum-wage work over the summer was enough to cover tuition and fees at an average public university. In 2020, that same student working a full-time minimum-wage job would have to work 34 weeks to cover tuition and fees. Over this same time frame, teaching staff-to-student ratios remained relatively stable, while administrative staff-to-student ratios tripled.

Seeking to remedy this affordability crisis, President Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which made the federal government the primary distributor of student loans. The result: the amount of outstanding student loan debt tripled from 2009 to 2022.

This session will discuss how affordable education as a means of achieving upward mobility has proven elusive, how a combination of state and federal policies wind up pushing costs higher despite bipartisan agreement on reducing the cost of education, and why political dynamics only serve to enforce the status quo.

Pritzker Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only. Seating in the IOP Living Room is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Ashley Jorn (ashleyjorn@uchicago.edu).