Dear Future President,

College tuition is raising higher and higher every year. There needs to be a way for lower income students to go to the school of their choice without the issue of money. There are only few students who can earn a full ride or even a partial scholarship. Seeing as a school still needs the money they bring in with tuition paying students, not many scholarships are given. The schools need this money because they have to pay the professors well and pay certain fees for the campus. It is understandable as to why the schools need this money, however the cost of tuition should be lowered because not many people are able to go to a good college.

John W. Schoen, a writer for CNBC, wrote that the cost for “Student Services” rose from 17 percent of the average schools budget to 20 percent from 2001-2010. According to reporter Jessica Dickler for CNBC, a college education is the second largest expense a person will most likely make. Tuition has been rising about 3-5 percent per year! That is too much money to pay just so people are able to get a degree and a well-paying job that will help them support themselves and their own family someday. During the recession, declining public funds were what caused the tuition to rise so high.

For example, say somebody who has a few siblings and their parents are tight on money would like to go to Harvard or any other ivy league school, they may only be able to go if they get a full scholarship because the family simply can’t afford the cost of the school. The student would then have to find a college that their family could afford (probably a community college, an online course, or a college that does not carry the degree they would like). According to CNBC, in the 1971-1972 school year at Harvard cost 17 times less than the cost in the 2015-2016 school year. The average cost for the 1971-72 school year for room and board was about $2,600. The cost for the 2015-16 school year with room and board was about $45,278.

While families have been paying less out of pocket they have also been relying on scholarships, grants and loans more than ever in the past. Mr. or Ms. President, it is up to you whether or not the tuition is going to be lowered. Private schools have risen about $24,000 since 1995 in 2015, that is only 10 years and the cost of tuition has sky rocketed that much. Public in-state college tuition has risen about $7,000 in the past 10 years, which is better than that of the private college tuition but it has still risen quite a bit for those who live in that state. Public out-of-state college tuition has risen about $17,000 in the past 10 years. The cost of tuition is causing people not to go to school because of the debt they will be in from student loans.

Some people might say that college tuition being so high is not in the way of a student’s success. However if a student cannot afford to go to college because they cannot pay for it out of pocket or they feel as though they will not be able to pay back the debt of student loans, then where will they go to get the education required for the career they would like to go into? Mr. /Mrs. President why should the cost not be lowered? More and more people each day are being told no at a job simply because they could not afford to attend college and therefore they do not have the education.

In conclusion, I think that college tuition should not be so high. Maybe the fix to this problem is to raise taxes for those with a better income that way nobody suffers from not having enough money. There are about 10.4 million families with a lower income in the United States according to WorkingpPoorFamilies.org. According to the US census that would leave about 308.5 families that are quite wealthy. For these families with a higher wealth, the taxes should be raised even if it is just by a little bit. It might help fix the tuition inflation and make tuition cost less.

Sincerely,

Colleen H.