Dear Future President,

My name is Amelia E. I am currently a freshman at SHS in Michigan. I am writing to you because the cost of college has been on the rise for years now. It’s became an important issue to me because my sister, a senior here at SHS is soon to graduate this year in the spring. I don’t want my parents to be worrying that it's too expensive to send her to college or my sister thinking about what's she going to have to pay after college rather than thinking about what she wants for a job. Right now it's more of luxury rather than a necessity. Around 43.3 million Americans are in student debt, and that's more than 1/7 of the country.

The cost of an average 4 year college tuition is $37,640. Compared to other countries, like Canada for example, it is only $18,136 dollars for the same amount of years. We should change it in a way that the government has to pay for the public universities much like they do for K-12 schools. With more people of going to college, there will be a surplus of more well educated professionals, which means more researchers, engineers, scientists and doctors.

Something that I have noticed was that having student debt delays major life events. For example, having children, buying a house getting married just to name a few. They are about 20% more likely to say that their debt influenced their employment plans, causing them to take a job outside their field, to work more than they desired, or to work more than one job.

Thank you so much for your time, Future president

Sincerely,

Amelia E.