Dr.Martin Luther King, Warren Buffett and a College Education

The memorial to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in Washington, D.C. will be dedicated this weekend.  While I am a bit upset that the statue was both designed and built in China I think the conception is good.  I would like to hold up Dr. King as proof that there are no excuses for not living a good life.  Here is a man who attended segregated schools in the heart of the Confederate South.  I have no doubt that his schools were sparsely built, poorly equipped and inadequately staffed.  What is more, they existed in the midst of a hard-boiled, legally sanctioned segregation that, frankly, endangered every man, woman and child in those schools.  Yet, he learned.   Dr. King went on to become the pivot point around which this country had its greatest reiteration since the Civil War. 

            The same story could be told about a long parade of minority groups who started their education in the rough and ended it in graduate school.  Quite frankly, growing up in poor, blue-collar and working class communities, I could say the same thing about my schools.  With few exceptions, my schools were old, the books tattered, the teachers marionettes.  The point being, you don’t have to have a great school to get a great education.  You just have to work at it. 

            While I certainly believe that beautiful schools and good materials, creative teachers and happy children are the best way to educate a generation, I also know that the best schools in the world won’t fix a spoiled child, disinterested parents and a culture that doesn’t value education.  With just a little tongue in cheek I can prove that every school can produce some cream that will come to the top if promised a chance at a future.  I am even going to propose a way to pay for it. 

            There will be about 3.3 million high school graduates this year.  If we take the top 10% of those grads we come to 330,000 students needing to head for college.  That education at public, in-state, four year colleges will average $20,339 (tuition, fees, room and board, transportation and personal expenses).   A little multiplication means that the total bill for the 2012 graduates for one year of college would be not quite $7 billion dollars ($6,711,870,000).  Who is going to pay for this?  Well, someone who says he is embarrassed by the paltry amount of income tax he pays, and wants to pay more: Warren Buffet.  This would only amount to about 10% of his net worth.  And he only has to pay for the first year.   I want Bill Gates to pay for the second year.  I have a list of six other American multi-billionaires who would take rotating turns footing the roughly $7 billion bill for each year’s graduates.  They would only have to cough it up once every 8 years, but it would guarantee a college education for every child that graduates in the top 10% of his/her graduating class.  Think of that, no child would be denied if he/she just scrambles to the top tier of the class.  If you can get to the top 10% of the worst school in the most miserale community in the country, you can go to college.

            What will you see?  You will see kids from poor schools making the most of their opportunities.  You will see kids from middle class schools seeing a chance to go to school without encumbering themselves in debt.  You will see kids from rich schools recognizing a good deal.  And our billionaires aren’t being taxed.  They are making a private enterprise decision to invest in education. 

            Come on, Buffett; keep the faith.