Dear Mr./Madam President,

As you know, one of the primary issues in this election has been the rising cost of college tuition, which is a growing problem for students and their families.  As the new president, you now have the opportunity and responsibility to address this as one of the top problems currently in this country.

Both the country as a whole and individual students benefit greatly when they receive a college education. But with huge cost increases, getting this education has become a source of tremendous stress and debt. The youth of America shouldn’t have the added stress of worrying about whether they will be able to go to college. And once they get into the college they choose, they shouldn’t have to be dragged down by debt and student loans the second they graduate. Even though they shouldn’t have to worry, they actually do because college tuition is only rising and incomes aren’t rising with it.

My thoughts on this topic are probably something you have heard on multiple occasions and my suggestions about what needs to change are also something you have most likely heard before; so I apologize for unoriginality.

The cost of college tuition in this country needs to drop dramatically or needs to be eliminated completely; meaning free college. This would allow hard working students to not have to spend their youth worrying about if they’ll be able to go to college, or when they do go, if they will be able to pay off their loans. Education benefits not only the person receiving it, but also the entire community and it shouldn’t be something we have to fight for, it should be something we have a right to.

It is completely ridiculous that the interest rate for student loans is higher than the interest rate for a car or a house. In fact, student loan rates are almost more than the interest rate for both a car and a house combined. And that’s only one of the shocking statistics. In one of the U.S. News & World Report’s articles about the rise of college tuition, it is stated that “According to data from the Labor Department, the price index for college tuition grew by nearly 80 percent between August 2003 and August 2013.” And to add upon tuition cost increasing, grants and financial aid drops by 10% (U.S. Department of Labor) making it harder and harder to go to college. Even though the college tuition rates are getting lower, that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still raising and are way too expensive for the typical American family.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development/Average annual hours actually worked per worker “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.” Americans work extremely hard everyday only to have to spend more on things that should be a right. Not only that, but average worker incomes have not grown since 2000 (U.S. Census, Congressional Budget Office). As a matter a fact, incomes have decreased at the same time that costs have increased. It has been confirmed by the Census Bureau that incomes have decreased up to 17%.

If the income of hard working people is decreased, but college tuitions are rising, how are young people, like me supposed to get the education that everyone deserves?

I personally believe that college should be free because everyone should be able to go to college if he or she would wishes. As I said before, education should not be something that we -students- have to fight for. Even though I am only 14, I have a few ideas of how to get government funding for college. Currently big companies, like Apple, AT&T and Verizon, just to name a few, earn billions of dollars in income on which they don’t pay any taxes. If we were to start taxing them a reasonable amount, it would start to offset the cost of college. Another idea that would help is to get funds from places that don’t exactly need all the money they are given, for example: Military. Right now, 53.71% of all discretionary spending (11.1 trillion dollars) goes to the military. If we were to cut it down to 50%, and give the extra 4% to colleges, it would significantly help.

I hope you take what I have said into consideration and act to make four year college free to everyone. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Quinn Bringelson