Dear future President,

College tuition rates are now at an all time high, and every year they’re increasing. This creates a huge struggle for families that are making minimum wage, single family homes and large families. Abby Jackson Business Insider stated “In 1980, the average cost of tuition, room and board, and fees at a four-year postsecondary institution was $9,438, according to the Department of Education. That number has since climbed to $23,872.” We need to stop raising the college tuition.

When my mother went to Saint Xavier University in Chicago Illinois, she said she paid $20,000 for tuition,room and board each year in 1992-1996. Now the cost of tuition has increased to $34,000 per year without room and board in 2016. Over the past 20 years the price has raised $14,000. The increasing price of college tuitions makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for people to attend college. More than 45 million Americans live in poverty, if the college tuition continues to increase how are people going to be able to attend college and get the education they need. After all, they are what make up America’s economy. For those who happen to afford the college tuition many Americans have chosen community colleges over the ivy league schools a lot would prefer to attend.

More and more people are choosing to attend community college because it’s “the cheaper option” “Four-year public universities and colleges saw an incremental increase in their number of students, up by less than half of 1 percent. Enrollments at private nonprofit institutions fell by more than 3 percent among part-time students, and by a total of three-tenths of 1 percent.” stated Jon Marcus of The Hechinger Report. Nonprofit organizations are now loosing student while community colleges are gaining students, this can easily be fixed so more and more people can attend the ivy league schools they prefer. This is only the half of the problem, many Americans are in thousands of dollars in debt when they graduate from college that they have to pay for the rest of their lives.

Many Americans are in debt when they graduate from college, over the years people have been so afraid to be in so much debt they don’t pick the major they want to do because of the cost. People would rather study a major that they will be able to pay off easier instead of playing catch-up for half of their lives. The ones who chose the opposite pay off student loans for life. “On average, borrowers are carrying roughly four student loans each, up from less than three in 2008. Meanwhile, the average balance has increased to $29,000 from $23,000. That has helped to push nationwide student loan debt to an all-time record of $1.2 trillion, an 84% jump since the recession.” Blake Ellis said from CNN Money. "Student loans are the only credit vehicle where a lender continues to extend credit year after year without knowing the person's ability, or even willingness, to pay," said Michele Raneri, vice president of analytics at Experian.

As you can see the increase in college tuition is making it a huge struggle that Americans are going through. This shows that it would be best to lower college tuition or at the very least stop it from increasing.

Sincerely,

Abigail G.