It’s no secret that education isn’t cheap — but at what cost do students earn degrees?

Unless your parents are over 40 and have collected a college fund on your behalf, chances are you’re a student putting yourself through school.

And while there are countless forms of federal aid and scholarships available, some students don’t qualify for that funding.

On March 31, teachers and supporters from across Oklahoma rallied at the state capitol in Oklahoma City to support higher funding for public schools and teacher’s salaries. The event, sponsored by the Oklahoma Education Coalition, drew an estimated 25,000 supporters.

Several school districts even canceled classes so teachers and students could attend the event.

I support the public school’s need for additional funding. My mother was a school teacher for nearly 22 years and I attended a small Oklahoma public school. Because of that, I’ve witnessed how frustrating it can be when activities are cut from a school’s curriculum and how low the standards are set by schools operating with little money. Due to lack of funds, most schools throughout the state have had to increase classroom sizes, reduce fine art programs and cut field trips.

The media spotlight is shining once again on the Sooner state after Hobby Lobby’s attempt to force its religion on its employees. Hobby Lobby is an Oklahoma-based arts and crafts company that has 609 stores nationwide.

Now, before the Biblical jargon gets thrown at me, I’ll acknowledge it’s none of my business to care about what religious practices one performs in the privacy of one’s home.

Likewise, it’s not a corporation’s business to dictate what kind of health benefits its employees receive simply because its “religious freedom” disagrees with a federally-regulated health care package.

For centuries, yoga has been a great mind and body exercise for Eastern men and women alike. Only in the last century has it been slowly introduced into the lives of western Americans. Today, yoga has become a regular practice for about 8.7 percent of Americans, according to a 2012 market study by YogaJournal.com.

Yoga has become an increasingly popular exercise among American women compared to men, as statistics indicate that men take significantly less of an interest.

According to the 2012 market study, 20.4 million Americans participate in the practices of yoga, 82.2 percent being women and 17.8 percent being men.

Today’s generation seems to love sharing their photos, ideas, personal beliefs and even their romance on social networking sites like Facebook, respectively for all of their friends, families, and future employers to see.

People may want to reconsider the amount of information they share on the site once they do some research.

Facebook has been a great way to connect with people but has a history of gathering information from every single Facebook account and keeping it, even after a user deletes their account.

It’s typically not too hard to spot someone who is texting and driving. Many times, they’re having trouble staying in their lane, throwing their brakes on at the last second, don’t notice when the light turns green, don’t use their turn signal — the list is endless.

These are not characteristics of all people under the influence of technology but I think you could agree that most fit the description.

If you are one of these people, shame on you. Everyone on the road should not have to fear for their lives because you feel the need to send a text.

OCCC’s three choirs will perform for free at 7 p.m. the evening of Tuesday, March 4.

They include 34 members of the Concert Choir, 26 Chamber Singers and 75 members of the Symphonic Community Choir.

Each choir is made up of OCCC students and community members.

I often refer to my grandmother’s purse as a portable pharmacy, namely because she has every over-the-counter remedy anyone would ever need tucked beneath her arm. Got a cough? She’s got cough-drops. Headache? She’s got Tylenol Tension and plenty of them.

Sometimes she’d slip me something prescribed if I complained loud enough.

Whether to alleviate pain or control chemical imbalances, both retail and prescription medications crowd our medicine cabinets as well as our daily lives.

Most parents teach their children to not say curse words. They do this for many reasons but typically it’s so the child will fit better into society.

But therein lies the problem. Nobody truly knows why society is opposed to certain words.

The late Comedian George Carlin summed it up in his infamous ‘7 Dirty Words’ routine.

“That’s about the only thing that you can really say about them for sure,” Carlin said. “That there are just some words — not many, either, just a few — that we’ve decided, ‘Well, we won’t use them all the time.’”

It seems as though one thing has been prominent on my Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram feed lately. No, it’s not any of the latest news. It’s Flappy Bird.

Flappy Bird is an iPhone and Android game where the user taps the screen to make a bird with tiny wings fly between tubes. Flappy Bird is being hyped right now, much like Candy Crush was about three months ago.

Sure, Candy Crush and Flappy Bird are fun but the hype surrounding these games highlight a big problem — Americans are addicted to their phones and it’s apparent in every aspect of our lives.