Promoting Education
Most nations of the world have frequently been active in the promotion of education over the years in order to erase the high levels of illiteracy that existed in the early history of education. Most nations, including the United States of America, have taken significant steps to improve kids’ education by enacting various Legislative Laws that favor pupils. Education must be promoted because it is the primary path to global success. For example, most countries may obtain an experienced workforce that can be used in industrial production through education. Education also helps in advancement in the level of technology because students through learning become more creative and therefore contribute the new skills to the world of technology.
The Student Loan Certainty Act
Promoting education has seen major progress in most developed countries due to the efforts made by the governments of such states. For example, United States of America has come up with Student Loan Certainty Act to promote students’ education. Student Loan Certainty Act is a law that was signed by the United States of America president, Barack Obama, in the year 2013. This legislation was all about the effort to lower the loan rates charged on the students’ loans. This law is the best law ever as far as promoting education is concerned. Through lowering the loan rates, a significant number of students can access the loans with a lot of ease. When the lending rates are low, and many students can access loans in a country, the country’s ability to have a stellar performance in economic development increases. This paper will discuss various aspects of this legislative law, Student Loan Certainty Act. These aspects include the purpose of this law, the reasons why this law is the best in promoting education. Additionally, the paper will talk about the counter-argument of the law and address the final opinion about the law.
Approval and Purpose of the Law
This law was approved by the United States Senate led by Bipartisan and signed by the former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, in the 113th Congress (2013-2014). The law was purposefully approved to ensure that the students’ loans are cheaper, assured and simple to understand (Fossey and Richard, 29). The interest rate for the undergraduates would reduce from 4.29% to 3.72% while that of graduates would reduce from 5.84% t0 5.31%. This legislation was tied to the market rates that were low and affordable. The legislation was to ensure that the students know how much they can borrow when to pay back and with how much interest to be paid. The government saw the need to reduce the burden of the loans on students after completing their studies because the interest rates were very high and inconvenient at the time of payment.
Reactions and Support from Different Groups
Even though this bill has been fought for until the last stages to be a law, it has witnessed mixed reactions from different groups in the US government. Alexander Lamar, the chairperson of the Senate education committee, and the former president of the University of Tennessee openly showed the importance and workability of the law. They said that when this bill is in place, the University will save a huge lump sum of money previously lost because of higher interest rates that go to the lending institutions. The legislation also earned the support from other groups such as the Democratic Party in the House, and the students who were taking their courses at the Higher Education level. On the other hand, the Republican Party, Senator Jack Reed and the lenders who used the market approach, opposed the law. They argued that this bill would weaken the economy due to the protection of students from penalties such as default from payment and late repayment of their loans. After some time, other few individuals such as Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Angus King from Democratic Party, leading to the reconciliation of the two opposing sides. After the reconciliation, the bill was signed by the former president and it since then became a law to protect and ensure smooth learning of the students undertaking Higher Education Programs. The legislation still has many critiques, but its flaws cannot match its benefits. The population that has reaped the benefits of this law is tremendous showing that this is the best law that will be in favor of the education system for a couple of years.
Development in Social, Economic, and Political Sectors
The Student Loan Certainty Act has led to significant development in the United States of America in social, economic, and political sectors. The law has promoted an increment of the number of people with skills that are vital in the development of these sectors. The various improvements that have been realized by the USA due a high number of intellects who have benefited and still benefit from this law are as discussed below.
Comparative Advantage and Economic Development
To begin with, the United States of America has a comparative advantage in the world market because of the high number of specialists (Olssen and Michael, 330). Through easy access to loans by the students, the students can continue their education without any disturbance. The students, therefore, have all the time they need to attend all the classes to gather information and the relevant knowledge that is required in their area of study. Specialists always produce the best quality goods and services that can compete favorably in the world market and meet the high demand by the customers. High-quality goods are always in demand while the customers' aim is to always maximize utility. Higher demand for products is an assurance of increased sales volume, and reduced wastage of resources, for instance, when the goods go bad due to low demand hence promoting economic growth of the country. Worker compensation between an educated workforce and the median workforce is very different. Those who are highly skilled are paid more money in return for their services as compared to those who are less skilled in the world market (Fossey, 29). Therefore, education is a vital tool in the economic development of the country and the authority in charge of developing the laws should always make laws that include best and sustainable education systems. Favorable policies, for this case, the Student Loan Certainty Act should be at the forefront.
Promotion of Peace in Organizations
Moreover, this law has led to the promotion of peace in different organizations of America. The Student Loan Certainty Act is legislation that is more concerned with promoting the welfare of students who pursue higher education. Increased education through this law has promoted peace among the employees, the managers, and other workers. Educated people in an organization are aware of the importance of the code of conduct. They acknowledge the need to behave professionally to ensure fairness and avoid penalties of negligence. Notably, education can promote good ethical practices obtained during training hence enhancing a conducive work environment. For example, a manager may choose to pay and value workers efficiently to enhance productivity and avoid unhealthy competition in the market to achieve business goals (Trevino, 960).
Ensuring Education is Affordable to Every Citizen
Lastly, this legislation has ensured education is affordable to every citizen as stipulated in the constitution. In the US constitution, education is a right to every citizen (Heymann, Amy, and Cassola, 122). The government is therefore very sensitive in making the laws that favor everyone that has the urge to acquire an education or further studies. All these attempts by the government have led to increased enrollment in schools, and it is clear that in the future there might be no illiterates in the United States of America. Through education, the citizens are capable of knowing what their constitution entails and abide by the laws of the land.
Counter-arguments
Despite the achievements of this legislation, it has received oppositions from different groups of people. Some groups view the Act as a very senseless and backward law, and various reasons stand the way of this particular law. Firstly, this law may lead to inflation (Alchian, 940). When the interest rates are low in the market, many people will be able to borrow more money. More money in an economy can lead to the high demand for products consequently resulting in the hoarding of goods and services and creating shortages. The inadequacies of products will result in higher prices hence inflation. Furthermore, parties that oppose this law argue that the law might probably lead to reduced business profits (Johns, Tammy, and Malone, 60). This law aims at enlightening everyone in the country and leading to job specialization and high skilled labor. As a result, all the labor force may become skilled and expensive to acquire leading to increased cost of production by the firms. The firm owners, therefore, feel unsafe as their initial source of cheap labor might become inexistent.
Rebuttal of Counter-arguments
Nonetheless, these arguments may not be valid because, in the first argument, people may borrow money and invest in a business promoting the creation of more employment opportunities. In the second argument, it is just an assumption made. People who train in different fields and not all occupations are highly paid. There are some jobs that the employers pay their employees comparatively lower wages, but the workers still take the wages at the ongoing rates without complaints.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Student Loan Certainty Act is an imperative law that the nations of the world should adopt to promote education, which is the key to success. Education has been and still is the most valued tool to fight corruption, to solve economic issues and to promote political science. It is, therefore, clear from this paper that any nation that needs a greater achievement in all its aspects of development must work towards the promotion of education by making it cheaper and affordable to all the citizens. They can adopt this legislation for them to realize the benefits that the USA currently enjoys and making the country maintain its position as a superpower.
Work Cited
Alchian, Armen A. “The rate of interest, Fisher’s rate of return over costs and Keynes’ internal rate of return.” The American Economic Review 45.5 (1955): 938-943.
Fossey, Richard. “The Certainity of Hopelessness: Are Courts Too Harsh Toward Bankrupt Student Loan Debtors.” JL & Educ. 26 (1997): 29.
Heymann Jody, Amy Raub, and Adele Cassola. “Constitutional rights to education and their relationship to national policy and school enrolment.” International Journal of Educational Development 39 (2014): 121-131.
Johns, Tammy, Laubscher, R. J. and Malone T. W. “The age of hyper specialization.” Harvard Business Review 89.7/8 (2011): 56-65.
Olssen Mark and Michael A. Peters. “Neoliberalism, higher education and the knowledge economy: From the free market to knowledge capitalism.” Journal of education policy 20.3 (2005): 313-345.
Treviño, Linda K., Gary R. Weaver, and Scott J. Reynolds. “Behavioral ethics in organizations: A review.” Journal of management 32.6 (2006): 951-990.
