By Hillary Cherry, Young America's Foundation Intern
While college tuition continues to increase, employment across
America continues to decrease. A record breaking Youth Misery Index proves the severity of the predicament we are facing today.
As I quickly approach my senior year of college, these statistics are
no longer just numbers to me but an actuality.
I am realizing that growing up to live the American
Dream is just not a reality anymore.
Higher tuition is making the dream of attending the college of
your choice more of a nightmare on families than any other time in
the past. If you want to go to college students and families are
basically forced to take out large loans at high interest rates.
These loans are only adding on to the enormous amount of debt we
will already be inheriting when we graduate.
Why is the cost of college tuition increasing? According to the
Wall Street Journal, tuition at for-profit schools where
students receive federal aid was 75% higher than at comparable
for-profit schools whose students do not receive any aid.
Federal aid is not the way to solve our problems. State subsidies
are being cut, yet colleges continue to attract students by
investing in expensive things, like high-profile faculty members,
fancy facilities, and a low student-to-teacher ratio.
While tuition is increasing, teacher productivity seems to be
decreasing-isn't that the reason why we are attending these
expensive universities to begin with?
College tuition and mandatory fees at public institutions have
increased within every state. The San Francisco Chronicle
reported that University of California campuses at Berkeley, Los
Angeles, Merced, Riverside, Santa Cruz, San Diego and Irvine
all saw tuition increases of 40 to 43 percent between 2009
and 2011. These statistics are causing high school students
to question if college is even worth attending.
Most students are taking out loans, which they assume they will
be able to pay off after graduation once they land a good job. If
our economy continues down the path it is headed that "good job"
might turn into something part-time while living with mom and
dad.
As the Obama administration travels across the nation to college
campuses, students welcome them with open arms and deafening
cheers. Do these students really understand the implications of the
President's policies? Not surprisingly, the administration's
solution is to subsidize those costs more, then order everyone on
the receiving end of the subsidies to perform in ways that run
counter to their own interests. Therefore, prices will continue to
rise rapidly, only bringing calls for larger subsidies and stricter
mandates.
The Obama administration has made the process of receiving a
loan so easy anyone can do it. We need tuition prices to decrease,
not create an easier way to get loans. The Obama administration is
not solving the problem; he is just creating an even bigger debt
for college students and the nation.
The Obama administration has given our generation enough
"gifts." Just because a student receives a loan, the
price of higher education does not magically become any more
affordable. Did anyone in Washington learn from Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac?
Once again our generation will receive the repercussions of this
administration's failures. The president wants to fight subsidies
with subsidies and students are losing. Unfortunately, it seems the
Obama administration lacks the common sense to realize that these
very subsidies are the root of the price hikes within tuition
prices. As prices of education go up, the value of a good education
seems to stay the same.
Living in the Obama administration's economy, a college
education does not guarantee success, but it does guarantee
debt.
Hillary Cherry is a Sarah T. Hermann Intern Scholar
at Young America's Foundation.
