From Mark Zuckerberg to Bill Gates, Harvard University boasts an incredible array of alumni, but behind her rigor is nothing more than a greedy enterprise who advertises her product through name-dropping and vain exclusivity. From sea to shining sea, the US boasts a surplus of colleges and universities who, like her, have forgotten their initial purpose: to educate. When education becomes an industry instead of a right, it hurts all students.

Commercializing education allows schools to charge ridiculous prices. Princeton University, for example, self-reports its projected yearly cost is $83,140. The average American income in 2021 was $60,575, a whopping $23,000 less than the cost of one year at the university. It isn’t just Ivy Leagues who’ve begun to view their students as clients; the average cost of tuition and fees has risen 134% in the last 20 years, according to a US News report, and the average debt of US graduates is $30,000, half of the average yearly salary.

Undeniably, these institutions cater towards the already affluent, averting any semblance of economic diversity from entering their campuses and catalyzing the phenomenon behind the classic principle that the rich get richer. After all, when evaluating prospective hires, why would an employer choose a community college grad over one from the acclaimed, opulent MIT?
With the challenge of paying for college looming, this issue has become dear to the hearts of many students. But if these institutions are so powerful, how can we change them? We can vote. In 2012, President Obama underlined that 75% of Americans felt college was too expensive and outlined a plan to change this: creating economic incentives for low tuition via government funding for colleges and increasing federal student aid. By voting for candidates who promote plans similar to these, we can affect change. We also vote with our dollars. Colleges are ultimately businesses and businesses need customers. If enough people start switching to inexpensive universities, overpriced schools will notice and lower their prices to restore their numbers. It’s time to remind these schools that education is a right, not an enterprise.