Students around the world continue to protest the rising costs and changes in education. Last week in Sweden, students took to the streets to protest against what they refer to as the “privatization of higher education.” The proposal would change ownership of state and public universities to privately owned institutions.

In Bulgaria, students and others chained themselves to Sofia University, protesting against several social service related issues, including the cost of education.

In Italy, protesters took action against university budget cuts made by Prime Minister Enrico Letta. Letta proposed these cuts as a way to adhere to European Union guidelines; however, students fiercely oppose the proposal.

Oftentimes students’ actions are linked to another cause, but in many cases students are passionately focused solely on reforming the cost of education

Last year, students in Quebec made international headlines when they demonstrated against a proposed raise in tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 per year. For five months, thousands of students took an active role in protesting against the proposed changes through occupations, demonstrations, online organization and more. More than 2,500 people were arrested in the first three months.

While studying in Chile last spring, nearly every Thursday was designated as a day of protest in the city center. Tens of thousands of students, both of high school and university age, flooded the streets. Marching to the presidential palace, they chanted passionate messages of frustration toward the Chilean government’s little education funding and development of public universities. Although the protests were somewhat of an incident-less carnival, there were occasional violent outbursts, particularly toward the end of the marches. Students were willing to risks their lives and their freedom to make a point to the Chilean officials.

In fact, four Chilean student protest leaders won seats in the Chilean congress this week.

It is inspiring to see so many people deeply committed to a cause.

According to Business Insider, the average cost of one year at a university in the United States is $13,856, averaged between public and private universities. This figure comes out to 26.9 percent of our nation’s average household income. Student loan debt in the United States is estimated at $1 trillion.

Marquette’s tuition rises every year. I hear complaints and frustration, anger and annoyance, but I never see change.

Instead, students in the United States remain relatively silent. With the exception of protests at the University of California’s Santa Clara and Berkeley campuses in 2009, there is little movement to challenge rising tuition costs.

The issue is not whether the value of education is worth the price tag; the issue is the lack of initiative students take in challenging these changes. If we are not going to take an active role in challenging the norms placed upon us, then we have no right to complain.

Taking action against an injustice does not need to mean chaining ourselves to the front doors of Zilber Hall or filling Wisconsin Avenue with the entire student body. Thoughtful, productive solutions or alternatives are vital to change. So long as students in the United States fail to step up, tuition costs will continue to rise.