Dear Future President,

        I would first like to start off my congratulating you on your victory. My name is Taylor Johnson and I am a freshman at Nipmuc High School. I am here to talk about the subject of college tuitions. I believe that college tuitions are way too high for all types of students. Whether the student has a lot of money or no money at all, the college tuition will put many students in a huge amount of debt. High school students want to keep learning new and exciting things after they finish high school, but most students can't afford college tuition. Most get loans, for which they will be in a great amount of debt after college. From the research I have done, I have found astonishing information and numbers. I have found that there is more then $1.2 trillion in student debt. The average college tuition is $29,000 for each year attending a college, and $29,000 times at least four years is $116,000 that students have to pay. Many students want to get their degree because they want a better education and to get a better job. In my research, I have found that in 2012, full-time workers with a bachelors degree earned 60 percent more than people with just a high school diploma. These students have a valid reason for wanting a better education, but the tuition for getting this education is way too difficult for a student to pay.

        College tuition fees have increased dramatically in the past 10-15 years. I have found that in this years 2000-2001, the tuition costs at a private college including room and board was $30,664. Now, for a private college in the years 2014-2015, the tuition is $42,419. That is a $11,755 difference in 14 years. For a public, four-year school in the years 2000-2001 the tuition was $11,635. Now the public college tuition in the years of 2014-2015 is 18,943. That is a $7,308 difference in the past 14 years. The thousands of dollars that have been added to the tuition can make a huge difference in the amount of debt a student has. To pay for this debt, students can try to receive a scholarship to help take away some of that debt, but very few students will receive scholarships of a great amount of money. From a different CNN website, I have found that less than 20,000 students get a scholarship to cover all the costs of college, that is .3% of students. The odds are even less to get a private full ride to college, only 250 full-ride private scholarships are given out yearly.

        As if the huge amount of debt isn't enough, the debt is causing even more problems for many students. Even after college, students are still thousands of dollars in debt. From my research I have found that, because of the debt, students are postponing marriages, postponing starting families and postponing home purchases. You can find all of this information from this website, http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/15/the-high-economic-and-social-costs-of-student-loan-debt.html. This website is a CNBC website that included all the news about college tuitions from TV, this issue is so huge that it is even being cast on the news for everybody to see. In this website there is a video that talks about the different problems that are caused from high tuition costs, like the postponements of life events and the huge amount of debt for these students. Many of these problems can be solved by lowering the costs of college tuition.

        I believe that all students should have the right to be educated without having thousands of dollars of debt. I believe education is a crucial part in everybody's lives and that everybody in America should be very highly educated. College tuition costs should be lowered, because then more people will have the chance to be educated and get better jobs. If the tuition costs are lowered, it will help many young adults to develop their lives for an overall better future. I would like to thank you for taking the time for reading about this important topic.

Here are the links to my sources:

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/15/the-high-economic-and-social-costs-of-student-loan-debt.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-rare-are-full-ride-scholarships/

-Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Taylor Johnson