French Education Gets an "F"
In the United States, there is growing support for government intervention in traditionally unregulated institutions, such as healthcare and education. Making American education more like the French system can be appealing since that system is gratuit et ouvert à tous (free and open to all) thanks to government subsidies. In truth, the grass is not always greener: the costs are low, but at the expense of quality.
French citizens believe that education is a right and want the State to ensure that each eligible citizen has access to a free education. Unsurprisingly, as more students elect to go to university, the State loses its capacity to provide enough professors. According to one of my classmates, Marie, at La Sorbonne Diderot, the overflow of students has resulted in “a bad quality of instruction…the level of instruction is being degraded because there are not enough professors for there is not enough money.”
The French claim that increasing tuition rates isn’t the answer. Therefore, the government continues to pour taxpayer money into the system. As it stands, the largest percentage of the national budget is allocated to funding the French education system (20%). When I mentioned this to Marie, she responded, “I don’t know where [the money] all goes.”
Since the French have elected to fund their higher education system via national taxes the, oversight, and regulation of universities is in the hands of the government rather than the students and university administrators.
Students like Marie, who aspire to earn a degree that’s actually worth something, try to attend one of the écoles supérieures (“superior schools”), which are neither free nor open to all. These schools are both more selective and marginally more costly (~£750 per year, as opposed to ~£250 at the state universities). These higher fees do not even begin to compare to American tuition rates.
Most French citizens on both the right and left believe that education reform is necessary. Those on the extreme right advocate for less intervention and favor increased tuition rates to take proactive control of the nation’s dismal education system. These so-called “extremists” are forcefully opposed by the majority who believe that “L'Université n'est pas une entreprise et le Savoir n'est pas une marchandise” (University is not an enterprise and Knowledge is not merchandise).
While these reformists call for immediate and proactive change, the majority still looks to the State, which is unsurprisingly preoccupied with issues other than the nonfunctioning education system. While handing responsibility over to the government seems enticing, it inevitably becomes difficult to reform institutions when they are in the hands of government officials.