November 1, 2016

Dear Next President of the United States,

I’m writing you today so that maybe my voice is actually heard. In today’s world we have a lot of issues that are now all in your control. Many you may not care about, but I would hope that if you plan on taking a stand in this presidency, you will take into consideration other people’s feelings and take it into your own hands for the sake of the future of our country. I’m writing you today specifically to bring your attention to college tuition. College tuition is something that I’m going to have to deal with very soon and is something a lot of people in today’s world struggle with. Many students every year graduate college drowning in debt and I think it happens to enough people that it has become a real issue.

In previous years college tuition has been on the rise. It shouldn’t cost your whole life savings and more to afford an education to benefit your future. It isn’t fair to have parents push for their child to go to college only to not understand how much harder it is today to afford it. It also isn’t fair to put the stress of debt on the student’s parents nor the 18 year old student who’s just trying to build a life for their self. Everyone grows up wanting to go to college and become whatever they’re passionate about, but today a lot of driven kids give up after considering the financial mess they are going to get themselves into. Some think it’s more worth it to stay at a minimum wage job and work themselves to death to afford their bills rather than giving into the college tuition debt system and have that follow them the rest of their life, considering getting a college education doesn’t guarantee you will actually find a decent job. 43.3 million Americans today have student loan debt and the United States as a whole has 1.26 trillion dollars in student loan debt amongst everyone. I think these numbers are significant enough that we need to come to a resolution considering most higher up jobs require a college degree and most people would love to go if circumstances allowed them.

I think it would be best if we restricted college spending to necessities and cut costs where they aren’t needed so that students don’t have to pay as much. If you feel that isn’t a good idea you could maybe explore more scholarship opportunities that are available to everyone. If prices weren’t so overwhelming maybe more students would be driven to actually attend college and see a reasonable solution to be able to pay it all off. I think we could get more higher up businesses involved to make small donations and if enough got involved we could provide enough money to relieve students of their previous debt or prevent a student from missing out on this experience because they don't see it possible. Although it may not be reasonable to help everyone I think it would bring forth hope and push more people to try.

Students pay an average monthly student loan payment of $351 while working a minimum wage job with limited hours considering they would have to juggle school work, class time and a job. This time of their lives can be very overwhelming when it should be a good learning experience that sets them up for the rest of their lives. Cheaper college tuition would also lead to more educated individuals in our society and lead to a better, more efficient work force. It could boost economy as well as provide jobs for students who then could actually afford paying off their smaller loans. More students would be excited to move on to that part of their life and our education system could be forever changed for the better.

Considering I’m not asking you to make it free, I think this solution is a lot more manageable compared to what another student might convince you of. Hopefully you take this into consideration and realise the real problems with this system today. I think many students my age would agree and if we all come to a solution together we could move forward onto a brighter and more successful future where college is no longer an obstacle but a good time to enjoy life and grow as an individual.

Sincerely,

Stephanie R.

Age 18

                                                                         Works Cited

"U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2016 | Student Loan Hero." Student Loan Hero. Web. 19 Oct. 2016.