Each year, college students are graduating with more and more debt. This can be contributed to college tuition increasing annually, student loans and interest rates on loans, uneducated student borrowing, or all of the above. In an age where a college degree is necessary in finding a good-paying job, something needs to be done to decrease the amount of debt that this generation’s students are graduating with. I myself am very lucky even to be able to attend Samford. If it were not for an unexpected university grant and a scholarship from my high school, I would not be here. Even with all my scholarships, grants, and work study, I will be graduating with around $50,000 in student loan debt. I try to justify this by coming to Samford for a better opportunity of getting hired right out of college or to be happy with my occupation and do something that I love, but it is hard to keep that mindset. Even now, it is hard to focus on my studies when I know that I will owe so much just for going to this school. It is not just this school, though, because even if I went to an in-state public institution I would owe roughly the same amount of money at the end of four years. The cost to attend college is ridiculously unnecessarily high.
Over the past thirty years, the average tuition of private four year universities has increased from $12,716 in 1984-1985 to $31,231 in 2014-2015, and over the same time period, in-state tuition for public universities increased from $2,810 to $9,139 (“Average Rates of Growth”). Since 1978, college tuition and fees have increased by 1,120%; over that same time period, the price of food has increased 244% and medical expenses have increased 601% (Reaume). The unsettling factor is that while tuition and fees have increased by 1,120%, since 1965 wages for recent college graduates has only increased by $6,700 (Kurtzleben). Like anything, there is not just one, all-encompassing reason for the tuition being so high.
One reason mentioned was that because of the decreased public state funding for public institutions, the institutions had to find a different source for their lost income. This different source came in the form of parents and students with the increase in tuition and fees (Campos). Not only does the increase in tuition have to do with the decrease in state funding, but it is also a supply and demand issue. The idea of return on investment of a college education is in the minds of students. Students want to go to college to gain a degree to be more employable and make more money and live a happier life because they know that college graduates make more money than high school graduates or college dropouts. Citizens in the work force between 25 and 32 years old with a college degree make an average of $17,500 more annually than those with just a high school diploma (Kurtzleben). The job market for recent college graduates is not very promising, either. Even though there are a very high percentage of college graduates every year, there is also a very high percentage of underemployment and unemployment. In the past twenty years, underemployment has increased in recent college graduates from 10% to 16.8%, and unemployment has increased from around 5% to 8.5% (Weissmann). So, between wages barely increasing for recent college graduates and the underemployment and unemployment rates going up for recent college graduates, the higher education system in the United States is a mess.
As a college student, I realize that the future and living in the real world are not far away. My future is always on my mind, so I want to do the most I can in the present to have the best future I can. Sometimes I question if college, or Samford in particular, is worth it. In my head I know it is worth it in the long run, and life is a marathon, but just thinking about how much my education costs is adding more stress to what I already have on my shoulders. The only motivation to taking out so many loans is that this education is what I make of it and I am paying too much money just to waste it. So, it can provide an extra incentive or motivation, but my motivation to succeed in college and in life has already been there.
Something has to be done so that students can become productive members of society more often and without being buried in debt. One argument is to make public colleges and universities tuition free, but the problem there is determining how to go about that.
There are already European countries, like Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, which do not have tuition and fees for higher education. These countries can afford free tuition and fees by their citizens paying higher taxes (Jackson). Traditionally, Europe has had higher taxes than the United States, which would give these European countries more money for social programs like free college. Even with fewer taxes, the United States should make public college tuition free.
Education is the basis of progress and power. If we as a country are making education too expensive for everyone to obtain, this country has the makings to turn into an elitist oligarchy, ruled just by those who can afford education. That is far off from the current time period, but it is on the way. The poor are weeded out by not wanting to pay off loans for thirty years after they graduate, and the ones that do will be imprisoned in debt. This is gradually setting education back hundreds of years.
If college tuition were free, more people would attend college. More of our society would be educated, thus allowing more of our society to become employable. Some people might argue that we would not have any more manual labor employees or that students would lose incentive to work hard in school. The people that work manual labor jobs more than likely would not go to college anyway. Not everyone is cut out for college and not everyone wants to go to college, but everyone deserves the chance. There are already students that take their education for granted. Making college free will not increase that number.
The current total student debt in the United States is at $1.2 trillion, $3,000 in student debt is accrued per second, and the average debt for a college graduate in 2014 was $33,000 (Barr). These numbers are atrocious, and the scary thing is that they continue to climb. In 2013, the average student loan debt for a college graduate was $28,400, which was already up by two percent from the 2012 average (“Student Debt”). If college tuition is not lowered and nothing is done about the student loan debt crisis, it will have serious repercussions on the economy.
Graduates cannot keep paying more for college and graduating with more debt while income has stagnated. That is bad economics. The United States needs to follow the lead of those European countries and make college tuition free. It will not lower the value of a college degree. It will not lower the incentive for students to go to private universities. All it will do is make a college degree more attainable for those who otherwise could not afford it. If nothing else, if the roles were reversed and college tuition began to stagnate and the income for college graduates began to increase, it would begin to regulate the debt for recent college graduates. That does not solve the unemployment and underemployment struggles. That is a completely different political issue that might require bringing jobs back to the United States from overseas. A high school degree is not worth what it used to be when public high schools were made free. It is time to adapt and adjust to the changing economy and changing populous and make college tuition free.
Works Cited:
“Average Rates of Growth of Published Charges by Decade.” Collegeboard.org.
College Board, (“no date”). Web. 13 October 2015
Barr, Cecillia. “Students & Debt.” Debt.org. Association for Student Loan Relief, (“no date”).
Web. 13 October 2015
Campos, Paul F. “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much.” Newyorktimes.com.
New York Times, (April 4, 2015). Web. 18 October 2015
Jackson, Abby. “ ‘Free’ college in Europe isn’t really free.” Businessinsider.com.
Business Insider, (June 25, 2015). Web. 19 October 2015
Kurtzleben, Danielle. “Study: Income Gap Between Young College And High School Grads
Widens.” Usnews.com. US News & World Report, (February 11, 2014). Web. 15
October 2015
Reaume, Amanda. “Will tuition ever stop increasing?” usatoday.org. USA Today,
(November 8, 2014) Web. 13 October 2015
“Student Debt and the Class of 2013.” TICAS.org. The Institute for College Access and Success,
(“no date”). Web. 13 October 2015
Weissman, Jordan. “How Bad Is the Job Market for the Class of 2014?” Slate.com. Moneybox,
(May 8, 2014) Web. 15 October 2015
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