Dear Future President,

As a teenager and even as an adult, there is a huge push to strive for higher education. You are told that you most likely won't find very much success if you don’t attend college. But people aren't taking into consideration that costs are what prevent most people being able to go. According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 48% of low-income qualified high school graduates can't attend a 4 year college, and 22% can’t attend any college. We need to work to lower the costs to give everyone an equal opportunity to achieve success.

Instead of decreasing the costs, they are increasing. An article from The New York Times Company from 2013 says, “The actual price of private nonprofit four-year colleges, after financial aid, has gone up an average of 4 percent a year for 20 years. For public institutions, which educate most students, the increase has been an average of 5 percent a year, with particularly sharp increases during the recession as states have cut back on their support.” As we can see the prices are already very high, they are continuing to increase. And as a result, the amount of people with the ability to attend college will decrease.

Not only is this college cost issue affecting those planning to attend college, but it is affecting the federal government as well. According to an article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, “The federal stake in this issue is tremendous with over 70 billion in student aid provided by the federal government last year alone.” It is outrageous that the federal government is putting this much into helping students attend college when we could simply lower the costs. This would decrease the amount of money going toward college financial aid, and leave more money that could go towards something different.

The rise needs to be reviewed and taken into consideration. An article from the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 says, “The rise of college costs had exceeded the rate of inflation for years- 489% to 115% since 1986. Now, students and parents are saying they've had enough. Overall student debt exceeds 1 trillion, which is more than all the credit-card debt americans owe.” The students and parents are right, it is unacceptable that prices have exceeded such heights.

Mr. or Mrs. president I ask you take into consideration how college costs are affecting everyone. This issue needs to be resolved before it worsens. And you, Mr or Mrs president, are capable of changing the lives of many by allowing them a greater chance. Thank you for your time.

                                                             -Ashley Voepel