Education shouldn’t be messed with — those who earn it and those who can benefit from it most are the ones who deserve it.

A post-secondary education, in our day and age, no longer gives you much of an edge in the job market. With more and more individuals graduating from university programs, our society is faced with intellectual inflation. There simply aren’t enough jobs for all of the educated population.

The mentality that “Ds get degrees” is poisonous to the system — people shouldn’t pay for a degree without putting any effort into learning and acquiring it.

This kind of mentality breeds a slew of graduates who don’t have the training nor the capacity to become strong contributors to our society. Why should our government be subsidizing students to graduate with degrees that they’ll never use or that they haven’t adequately earned?

This doesn’t mean that education shouldn’t be accessible to individuals — it simply means that, by making it accessible to those who truly merit it, we will graduate more students who belong in their given degree programs.

Offering low-interest loans and sizeable scholarships to students graduating from high school for programs that they will likely excel in as a positive step. After all, post-secondary education shouldn’t be a privilege based on the amount of money one’s parents have.

In order to ensure that post-secondary education isn’t being overused, we should make sure our high school system is training individuals to be productive, thoughtful citizens.

In a democratic society, an individual shouldn’t require a philosophy degree to acquire critical thinking skills — our government should improve mandatory high school classes, such as civics, to give people those skills upon graduating.

Moreover, apprenticeship programs in high school give students skills without them having to invest in more education.

Currently, our government simply can’t afford to maintain post-secondary education as a given right for all. It should absolutely be a privilege — but not a financially inaccessible one. This is the only way to combat the rampant intellectual inflation that our society is facing.

— Journal Editorial Board