To you future President,

October 2016

Congratulations on winning a hard fought election, though as you are now Commander in Chief, there are several issues that I, as well as others, feel necessary to bring to your attention. One such issues of particular importance is the cost of education, namely community college. It has taken about 3 decades for the price to skyrocket over 200%* and in the meantime more and more people are being denied an education, and by extension, well paying jobs. This leaves over 60% of adults over 25 without a bachelor's degree to this day.

The now incumbent President Obama proposed a plan to remedy this back in January of 2015 called the “America’s College Promise”, the idea was, is, to divide the cost between the states that choose to participate and the federal government, with the latter paying 75% whilst the former pays the remaining 25. However, this plan would only be available to students who maintain their grades. Both halftime and full-time students who keep a 2.5 grade point average, apply to colleges that offer occupational training in high demand fields, or credit towards a 4 year degree. Bear in mind that this does not cover any 4 year college student X may plan to attend, only 2 year community, but a nearly identical system has already been implemented in Tennessee. Now in terms of cost, it’s been estimated that this system should be around 35 billion, remember that number. This may sound like a lot, but is necessary to be put into perspective. About 5% of 314 million adults in the US, about 6,700,000 over 20 are unemployed. Now, the government spends roughly 520 billion every 5 years on that 5% as of 2016, divide that by 5 and you’re left with 104 billion a year being spent on benefits for the unemployed, a whole 69 billion more than the cost of the President’s original proposal. This is of course, assuming the unemployment number stays up to 5% once this is put into effect. Take into account commander, that only .3 of said 5%, represents 32 billion of the original 105. Consider the following: In order to bring the unemployment rate down and make community college more affordable, this plan would need only affect .3 of those unemployed after two years, with a deficit of 1 to 2 billion at maximum.

As president, I don’t doubt you’ve any shortage of people assaulting you with demands for change. I do however, hold doubts about whether this will ultimately be read by anyone with the title “commander in chief”. So it is to you, my hypothetical president, H. or D. that I make my closing statement in a hopeful perfect quality. As I write, over 6,700,000 adults remain unemployed, many without the skills necessary to lead a successful, or at the very least, substantial career. I believe we have the capability to change that number, to lower it, and move forward over the wall of problems that face us today, again.  

Works Cited 

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/29/news/economy/unemployment-benefits-cost/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/01/12/no-we-dont-spend-1-trillion-on-welfare-each-year/

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/spending_chart_1960_2021USb_XXs2li111mcn_H0f