Dear Future President,

Parents and teachers always say education should be the main priority of a person, but how can it be the student focus to go on their studies if they’re focused more on their college expenses. They might have that mindset whether or not they should continue college and if they're going to be able to afford the rest of their education. There has been some programs that help graduates with their loans so their future isn’t bombarded with debt.

Let’s take a look at how college tuitions have risen, slowly but surely it has become more and more expensive. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, in the time span from 2007-2014 public college tuition have risen by$3,200. With that rate going up so are the loans that a student gets and then the student ends up with this huge loan he or she has to pay; at the end of the day it becomes this huge knot. Student Loan Hero’s statistics say that: “$1.26 trillion in total U.S student loan debt.” That’s a lot of cash, this is something the Leader of our Country should definitely take a look at.

There may be some people that say it isn’t much of a problem because that’s what scholarships and loans are for, but they don’t know that “colleges increase tuition even more, because they know financial aid can cover the difference” (Inside Higher Ed). Most of the time students don’t qualify for a scholarship that cover the majority of their college expenses.

Our previous President was fully aware of this issue, so aware that he tried to take action and from there President Obama’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program was born. This was a program where if the student has federal loans then they qualify for the Pay as You Earn system, it takes about 10% of the borrower’s disposable income, when they reach a 20 year mark then the balance is forgiven. This system obviously has it’s downsides and its positive attributes, for starters it deals with a nationwide problem and at least forgives student debt. The negative side is that if the debt is forgiven then that money had to come from somewhere, taxes perhaps. This is a great starting point, the next president of the United States should take advantage and revise and revisit on a project that could have potential.

This isn’t an issue that we can just let fly; the future for our country depends on the upcoming generations, and it isn’t a doubt that college tuitions are going to rise even more in the next couple years. Abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass once said that "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." A way to build strong children is to have the adequate and affordable education for them. I am in my third year of high school, and I want to look forward to my future education not on my future debt.