Dear future President (Sir or Madam), 

Our futures are at stake. Students are becoming more and more in debt, and it is not their fault. High tuition is the real culprit for the ruin of many students' lives. Tuition and student debt are highly correlated.   

Universities’ tuition have escalated. This poses a substantial threat for our youth's future. Many people are questioning the reason that these tuition costs are rising, and who it are predominantly affecting. If the tuition fees continue to steadily increase, then more and more students will not be able to afford a higher education and will be under-educated; it will be harder for them to find a good job. Even though financial aid has increased with the rising tuition, the students that do not receive enough financial aid suffer. Universities should dramatically reduce the cost of tuition for the sake of the students. 

 Tuition should be lowered because it is having a negative impact on the students. Students either incur burdensome debt due to the tremendous increase in college tuition, are unable to finish, or choose not to go to college at all. According to Adam Davidson, an American journalist for the New York Times, “the great national crisis is the fact that too many other young adults are not going to college or, if they do, don’t graduate, in large part because they can’t afford it” (“Is College Tuition Really Too High?”). The high costs of tuition are preventing potential students from getting a higher education. Many students, as Davidson says, are not able to afford a higher education or are not able to graduate due to the unreasonable expenses.

  Higher education is becoming expensive. Students cannot afford to receive a higher education because the prices of tuition have increased immensely. At Alabama University tuition fees have increased significantly, and students have suffered. “ In 2000, Alabama’s in-state tuition rate was $3,014 per year. In 2012 it was $92,000, an increase of 205.2 percent. Students have certainly felt the financial squeeze of higher tuition rates” (Bennett and Wilezol 15). In other words, students are being pushed farther and farther into debt because universities’ tuition is climbing. Because universities have hiked their tuition prices, many students with an inadequate amount of financial aid and moderate incomes cannot receive a higher education unless they are willing to be in debt.

Because of this student debt, there are other numerous negative factors that are affected. Upon graduation, the burden of excessive debt that has accrued during college delays graduates from crossing adulthood milestones. In the book Is College Worth It?, the authors, William Bennett and David Wilezol wrote, “According to one survey of recent college graduates conducted by Rutgers University, 40 percent of them had delayed making a major purchase, such as a home or a car, because of college debt” (18). Debt can take over a person's life. When someone is in debt, they will have setbacks; these setbacks often hold a person back from achieving the future that they dreamed. For example, a student who dreamed of leaving Putnam County borrowed $120,000 to attend a university in Ohio but has to move back in with her parents. She told the New York Times, “ ‘I would love to get away. But it would be more financially responsible if I got a job near here and lived with my parents’ ” (qtd. in Bennett and Wilezol 19). This student is just one example of someone who spent their life hoping and dreaming for something but whose dreams were crushed by college debt. If the tuition prices at universities were reduced then students could live out the futures that they dreamed of without having to delay them. 

 Regarding the world of higher education, some people argue that tuition fees are sufficient and do not need to be changed, yet the ever increasing tuition is making it difficult for some students to receive an education that many take for granted. Everyone should have an equal opportunity at higher education no matter their income. Lowering tuition would help students to keep their debt at a reasonable level, allow them to live out their dreams, and give all students, regardless of income level, an equal chance at receiving a higher education. By making the tuition more affordable, it will not only give students who cannot afford college an opportunity at higher education, but will also help our economy become stronger. The economy will become more stable and society more advanced because the individuals that were not able to afford a college education are better able to improve our society by providing our country with more jobs. 

I hope you will take this into consideration for the sake of our future and the future of the students that are to come. Every student deserves the right of higher education. We do not want this right to be taken away from us due to universities raising their tuition.

Sincerely,

Leeann  

Work Cited

Bennett, William J., and David Wilezol. Is College worth It?: A Former United States Secretary of Education and a Liberal Arts Graduate Expose the Broken Promise of Higher Education. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2013. Print.

Davidson, Adam. "Is College Tuition Really Too High?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Sept. 2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.