Rachel T, Raywa M, Anna L Michigan

Fear of Increasing College Costs

Over time, the cost of college tuition has dramatically increased and is becoming a major worry for our future generations.

Dear Future President,

Over the past 20 years, the average cost of public tuition has increased by $20,205. From 1996 to 2016, college costs have ridiculously gone up. The cost of college tuition is becoming harder and harder to afford due to this increase. Years ago, college was still expensive, but it was not impossible for the average family to pay for. Even if the average middle class family could not afford the price of college, they could at least find the means to pay for the cost through loans. Unfortunately, times have changed and families fear the growing debt that comes along with college loans.

In order for our country to continue to grow smarter, more people need to be able to further their education by being able to go to college. This has become harder and harder to afford due to the steep increase in cost. In order for our society’s intelligence to increase as a whole, more people should be pursuing their education by going to college. This is not possible without lowering the cost or stopping the increase of cost.

Another aspect of this issue is that our current society makes it difficult to find a job without having a college degree. For people who seek an average job, most employers are looking for someone who has gone through college or even continued their education to a further extent versus someone who has only finished high school. “When College Grads Earn Like High School Grads,” by Jordan Weissmann, states that the median earnings for a high school graduate in 2010 was roughly $28,000, while the median earnings for someone with their bachelor’s degree was about $50,000. This correlates to the type of jobs someone without a higher education is able to attain, and therefore means that they usually make less per year.

This issue has been brought to us three writing this letter because we are currently at the stage in our lives when we are searching for colleges to attend in the fall. College costs have astounded us and led us to research this problem in our country. In order to solve this issue, we believe that legislation needs to be created to increase taxes to help pay for some of the college cost. If the legislation raised taxes to pay for all of the college costs, taxes would become unrealistically high for citizens of the country to pay. Another possible piece of legislation would be to put a price cap or a price limit on the amount colleges can charge for tuition. A helpful step could also be cutting tuition by 25% at colleges with Division I football programs. This is not a perfect solution, and does not cover every college student in the nation, but it does alleviate some of the cost for a majority of those desiring a higher education. Through problem solving and collaboration, college costs will be able to stop growing and hopefully reach a reasonable cost. Making changes will benefit our country and its citizens by allowing students to reach their full potential.

Sincerely,

Raywa, Rachel, and Anna


Works Cited:

Weissmann, Jordan. “When College Grads Earn Like High School Grads.” Slate, 8 Sep. 2014. Web. 2 Nov. 2016. 

Okemos High School

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