Maelynn

Olympia, WA

03 November, 2016

The Next President of the United States

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Next President:

Ever since I was a very young child I have been interested in medicine. I want to attend a medical school at the U.W. but I won’t be able to do that if college tuitions continue to increase. Although it may take time, college prices need to decrease. Many colleges are increasing their fares to prices that are way too high. It doesn’t make sense because while the prices continue to rise the educational time in the classrooms go down and fundraisers usually go to non academic programs such as sports.

Thanks to grants and scholarships many people are able to get loans to scrape their way through college. Unfortunately, a lot of these scholarships are need based instead merit based. It is good that the colleges are thinking of the poorer people who really do need the extra funding but for people who want to continue with an advanced degree, merit based scholarships are very helpful to get. If college tuitions became affordable there wouldn’t be as much need for scholarships or grants.

Say that colleges suddenly became affordable. More people would be able to get off the streets, get a proper education, and then get a good paying job. If people can get a sustainable degree, they will then be able to get high salary jobs which would then result in a higher tax revenue. If we could lower the overall costs of college, more people would decide that there was a purpose in getting a degree and then more people would go to college.

So, how do we solve this problem? First we need to get teachers and professors aware of how pricey the textbooks that they are assigning to their students are. A lot of the time they are unaware of the amount of money that is being invested in books. Over the past 20 years these books have tripled in cost. That is because publishers are putting unnecessary add-ons just to increase the selling price. Fundraisers are sometimes used for non academic activities such as sports. That money needs to be put into making costs cheaper. We need to get the community to be aware of the importance of educating our children. If we can petition to schools or the government, we can try to get the overall prices to go down. Top staff at the schools are getting raised salaries. Decrease the number of books, decrease unnecessary salary overages, use fundraiser money to help the students learn instead of play and we will be able to lower college tuition.

Once we can get affordable colleges and good scholarships more people will get the opportunity to get a college education. People can learn the smart ways to handle money and then they can get a job. Doing this would fulfil Thomas Jefferson’s quote saying that, “the country had the moral responsibility to educate all its children and that schooling should be separate from religious instruction.” Not enough of us are going to college due to financial issues. If we can lower college costs we will be rewarded with a smarter generation planning our futures.

The first thing that you need to do to address this rising college cost problem is to get people aware of this situation. If others hear you, the president, speaking about college financial problems, they will know that this is a serious problem across the nation. Then, we should make it so that you can only have one book per class. This way students can earn enough money for the next class course for new books without lots of debt.

I hope you address this issue throughout your terms of President. While you do, I hope you remember that by just doing one thing, you can help a small child achieve big goals

Sincerely,

Maelynn

Works Cited

Dominique, Jill. “Rising College Costs.” Issues: Understanding Controversy and Society, ABC-CLIO, 2016, issues.abc-clio.com/Topics/Display/1075584?cid=41. Accessed 4 Nov. 2016.

Driscoll, Sally, and Marlene Clapp. “Free College Tuition: An Overview.” Points Of View: Free College Tuition (2016): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

Auerbach, Michael P. "Fees In Public Schools: Overview." Points Of View: Fees In Public Schools (2016): 2. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 7 Nov. 2016.