Getting in to I.O.U.

So, you’ve got a brain. You’re off to a pretty good start. If you’ve got an ok school system, you might be able to sustain the attention necessary to get through 12 years of education.

What’s the reward for graduation? If you’ve got a high school diploma, you have a couple of choices:

1. Enter the workforce straight out of high school, or…
2. Go to college.
Choice #1 doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world, right? There are lots of legitimate, good reasons for beginning a career after high school; financial or personal circumstances can often make it a necessity.

Problem is, Americans with college degrees earn twice as much money as people without them.

So, you hear that fact, and you rightly conclude that college is a must, no matter the cost. Four years later your closest after college friends are a handful of lenders who can’t wait to flood your parents’ house with more paper than you pushed in school.

Many activists recognize the high cost of education as a major issue to be solved. We here at 99problems.org are proud to highlight the staff of our very own Portland League of Young Voters Education Fund for their incredible work on the initiative that became, dun dun du nuhhh … Opportunity Maine:

America benefits from every graduate and every skilled worker that good schools send back to our communities. We benefit from the innovations of a well conditioned mind, the confidence that an education gives you, and the compassion it often nurtures. The people of Maine see that. It is an understatement to say that Opportunity Maine is groundbreaking. Since its inception, many other states have ramped up their efforts to fight brain drain in their communities and keep graduates within their borders.

The thing about education is, it pays forever. But we shouldn’t have to.

Today’s Artist: The Cool Kids

The Cool Kids are a hip hop duo from Chicago and Detroit who are bringing a slow grinding old school hip hop feel back into the world of music. They’re remarkable because they’re mostly self educated in the business; until recently, all of their material was released through their MySpace page and moved through the magic of online conversation.

By this point, their single Black Mags (linked here) is up to almost 2.2 million views on YouTube, so we imagine they’ll be around for a while. We like the Cool Kids because of the atmosphere of their music-easy going but alluring, not much fronting-and their ability to stay independent for so long.

Posted by:

Sam Patton