Friday, October 31, 2014

College Tuition Reform

Currently Russia has the highest percentage rate of adults with a university education. This was once a position held by the United States, but because government funding has fallen, tuition rates for students have risen, and college debt has risen, many students fail to graduate. College tuition has
raised 1120% since 1978, four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index(1). The national student loan debt has reached 1.2 trillion dollars, far higher than credit card and auto loan debt(2). All this data truly shows is that America is becoming a harder place to become educated and financially stable. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, “Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”(8) I believe America needs to make a few more changes before higher education is truly “equally accessible.”

First, for college to be “equally accessible” it has to be equally affordable. The average cost of one year of tuition and fees in 2013-2014 was $30,094 at private colleges, and $8,893 for state-resident public colleges(3). In 1976, with a summer job at $2.20 an hour, you could save up enough money for an entire year of tuition and fees at a state college. Today, with minimum wage in Texas at $7.25, a summer job would pay for about a quarter of a year's tuition. Even if minimum wage were $15 an hour, a summer's work would only cover half a year's tuition. For most people, a loan is the only financially possible way to go to college, although high interest rates and high monthly payments force some Americans to drop out. President Obama recently signed into law a new way of setting interest rates for federal education loans. Also the cap was set for monthly payments to be 10% of the borrowers disposable income and forgives the balance after 20 years of payments(6). I believe that Congress needs to continue to cap education loans and not profit off the backs of college students. This will help keep default rates down and make a college education more accessible to people with low income.

Secondly, college tuition has risen greatly for a few different reasons. The high demand for education has caused colleges to react in different ways, for instance, research universities spend so much that they need to compensate with higher tuition rates. Private schools also spend a lot and increase tuition due to lack of funding. Most public universities are just trying to make up for the lack of state funding. For most community colleges even with increased tuition payments, they still have to cut spending(7). The government should give more funding to public universities so they can lower their rates. Private colleges then would have to lower their rates to compete. While some colleges and universities are struggling due to lack of funding and higher demand, some are expanding administration and sports funding(4). This money should not be spent on non-educational programs. Colleges and Universities have no government cap on tuition or profit so they are allowed to charge and spend however much they want. Whether you're a new student or a returning student, tuition and fees usually rise slightly every year. I think the government needs to step in and cap the amount colleges charge for tuition in correlation to much operating costs. This will force colleges to budget their spending and keep tuition at a reasonable price.

With affordable college loan payments and lower tuition rates, higher education will be “equally accessible” to more Americans. I think these things will help Americans regain their position as number one in percentage of college graduates.






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