Dear Future President,

You would think that the cost of college tuition wouldn’t be as high, but it actually is. Many people want a good education, but the high cost of college tuition forces them to go to a college that they’re not really interested in or forces them to not go to college at all. The high cost of tuition not only put kids in student debts, it always affects them in many other ways. These rising costs also forces many people to drop out without finishing off the whole entire year causing them to not have a degree which would take them even longer to pay off their student debts. "It's hard to see it continuing that much longer because you're getting to a point where it's getting too difficult for families to afford college," said Kelchen from the CNBS article."Students can access loans. But for how long are they willing to take on more and more debt?" The rising costs of tuition also impact many students future career. A reporter from the article Tuition Talk: Side Effects of College Costs reported, “Thirty-six percent of college students start their own businesses as opposed to attending college, and 21% start a business due to unemployment.”

Many students and families wonder why tuition keeps rising and how much higher it will go due to millions of college graduates still in debt and unemployed. According to reporters from the CNBS article, “The average cost of tuition and fees at a private, nonprofit, four-year university this school year was $31,231—up sharply from $1,832 in 1971-1972. At public, four-year schools, tuition and fees cost about $9,139 this year.” Researchers who study the rapid rise of tuition says that it's important to understand the different forces that are driving the cost of delivering that education and the price students and their families have to pay. If the cost of providing an education has remained stable, then why does the cost that students pay keep rising? “The reason, say researchers, is that deep budget cuts in state funding for public higher education and shrinking subsidies at private schools have pushed a greater share of the cost onto students and their families.” I disagree with this reasoning because I think that it's truly unfair that families have to pay more money due to a state funding problem.

Americans today tend to believe that it is better to apply for a free college because you wouldn't really have to pay anything, but the truth is that free college isn't actually free. It is said that, “Tuition-free colleges won't have the resources to serve additional students without compromising the quality of their offerings.” A push for for tuition- free college would put a strain on public budgets even further, leading to shortages and not increased access. Free college plans assume that tuition prices are the main obstacles for a student's success, where where federal grants cover the price of tuition for low-income students. The New York Times article: The Problem Is That Free College Isn’t Free states, “Despite free tuition, just one-third of students from the bottom income quartile who started at a community college in 2003 finished a degree of certificate by 2009. Two-year students from the top income quartile didn't do much better.” Rather than spreading federal money, policymakers should only target money towards the people who are most in need of it with their choice of choosing a public or private college to help fit their needs.

According to our past president, Barack Obama, he believes that giving away two years of free college tuition to students would be a major investment to many students. “What I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is willing to work for it,” Obama said. Although the cost of this was going to be very expensive costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars, Obama still wanted to go through with it because it would save an average college student about $3,800 in tuition per year. The Newsela Article wrote, “So far, Obama’s efforts to reduce the cost of college have not been that successful. He has tried to tie financial aid to how well colleges help poorer students afford school. He has urged states to take school performance into consideration when distributing money to their public colleges. Obama has raised by $1,000 the maximum Pell Grant award, the government grant that helps students from poor and middle-class families attend college. The student loan system has been changed to cut out special fees banks charged for providing college loans.” Miller stated, “ If a sixth grader thinks he doesn't have a chance of going to college because his family cannot afford it, you may conclude that there’s no point in trying.”

In conclusion, I believe that the high cost of college tuition is bad because it isn’t fair to low income families. What if high tuition costs causes a student to not go to college due to their family not having enough money to pay for it. In other words, high college costs should be lowered so that everyone has a chance of attending college.

Sincerely,

D.B.