Poor Man's Fight by Elliott Kay Read Free Book Online

better after talking with Allison and coming up with a backup plan for the next few years. Still, he thought, he might not need that plan. He could potentially come up with another option. And, really, perhaps he simply read too much into the questions on the exam? Maybe he was more upset with his performance than he needed to be?
    Trying to release stress, Tanner stretched his arms and legs out where he sat. He wondered how long it would take to get his final results back. Then the screen flashed again.
    “Your financial obligation for your compulsory educational benefits is 67,879 credits.”

Two: Theater
     
     
    “We talk a lot about hope and aspirations this time of year. We talk about awakening potential and reaching for the stars. We talk about achievement. About the long, hard road through twelve years of primary education. About how ‘mandatory’ education is really only the beginning of what is truly mandatory to succeed in today’s economy and today’s society. We tell success stories.
    “What we only briefly acknowledge, however, is the fact that on this day, on the day of The Test, hundreds of thousands of Archangel’s young people and, indeed, many millions throughout the Union are hit with their first major financial debts. While we highlight our most successful students, while we encourage every student to reach for the stars, the vast majority have lead weights attached to their feet.”
    The holographic image of President Gabriel Aguirre shrank away as if the viewer floated back in the air into the audience. Seated in the foreground and now pivoting in her chair to face the viewer was one of the news program’s main anchors. She sat in an auditorium seat dressed in a sharp, flattering suit, but anyone watching the broadcast knew that most of this was simple tricks of computer imaging done after the president’s speech. It looked as if he continued to speak in the background, but in reality the anchor’s presentation had been put together during and afterward the speech. The anchor most likely spoke once the seats around her were completely empty—or, just as likely, the anchor had never physically been at the speech at all.
    “Speaking at the prestigious Michelangelo Academy, President Aguirre has chosen the day of the Union Academic Investment Evaluation to attack not only the corporations that run our schools, but indeed the very essence of student financial accountability. While President Aguirre called on all of Archangel to remember the passengers and crew of the liner, he noted that information was still coming in and chose to push on with his speech.”
    Once more, the news presentation shifted to an up-close holographic view of the president. His salt-and-pepper hair and the mild signs of aging in his face gave him an air of maturity, but like any man of means, he was quite a bit older than he looked. The spontaneity and energy in his speech were as much a matter of long-polished skill as they were a matter of natural passion.
    “This system evolved out of pressure to ensure that students took responsibility for their own education. The Union required, and still requires, an educated populace for its own survival and prosperity. But who should foot the bill? Society? Not everyone has a child. Parents? That would create a daunting economic barrier for many would-be mothers and fathers interested in having a child, all while the Union and most of its member worlds so strongly encouraged raising families.
    “The answer our forefathers came to was simple: the student should pay for it. Naturally, a parent could choose to help, but the final legal obligation should land on the student, who at graduation is expected by society to be a responsible young adult. And that answer,” Aguirre said, pausing and shaking his finger just subtly enough that the right cameras would catch him innocently pointing toward the NorthStar builder’s seal on one wall of the auditorium, “came from the very