EDUC 499: Greece - Summer 2019’s Updates

Reading Response 4: Greek Financial Crisis and Education

The Greek financial crisis feels like an inevitable result of the EU monetary union where there is an obvious difference between the countries that started out with strong currencies and those that did not. What I find most interesting has been the response of the people in Greece (and other countries like Spain, Portugal, and Italy) to austerity measures. I appreciate the fact that students want to hold their government accountable and demand quality education. 

One of the main differences between the United States and many European countries is the cost of higher education. It's clear that students in Greece have an expectation that education is a basic human right and the government should fund it. The resulting strikes and protests on the reductions of funding to education because of the crisis have had a big impact on Greece. It seems like we'll be visiting at an important time, when many believe that the Greek economy is turning around, so it will be interesting to hear from universities and teachers to get their perpsective on whether they see changes.