Dear Future President,

Congratulations on winning the election! I know you’ll do a great job as president. Ok enough pleasantry time to get down to business. I want to discuss with you about college expenses for me and my friends. College is a place I am bound to go. My uncle always told me this and I believe it myself too. However, when I calculated how much it costs, I was very discouraged. I am 11 years of age and by the time I go to college it will cost $139,701 which will cost my parents $927 a month if they start saving now (savingforcollege.com). Obviously, I have a problem with this: first of all my parents cannot afford to save $927 every month. Not if we want to eat. Second of all, should it really cost this much? I don’t think so. I really think we can up with better solutions.

But first let’s introduce the problem: the cost of college has gotten out of control. The average cost for college is $23,893 and that’s just for in state. If I wanted to go to a college out of state, it would be $32,405 per year (collegedata.com). And that’s not all: the rate of increase for college tuition is 2.9% for a public school and 3.9% for a private school. That means every year college is going to get more and more expensive. If this keeps increasing then it will be that crazy number I mentioned earlier and no one can afford that.

Studies show that if you are a college graduate you make more money than a high school graduate (moneybox.com). College is supposed to educate you but if we financially can’t afford it how do you expect people to get a good paying job? The average high school graduate makes $20,241 per year that’s $34,424 less than someone with a bachelor’s degree (www.pbs.org). The unemployment rate for high school graduates is 12.2%, but for a college graduate it is 3.8%. What would you do if you only made $1,000 per month? Would you be able to survive on that alone for your family? I know I would struggle with that and I can only imagine what people in that situation go through on a daily bases. My hope in writing this letter is that it will make you more aware of the difficulties of financing college.

In the last decade college tuition has risen 80%; that’s almost more than high school graduate makes in a year (http://www.dailydot.com/)! I think college should be free. This will make sure that more people will go to college. Studies that show when the population is more college educated the GDP for the nation is higher. If you have a college education, you are more likely to have a comfortable life. Our nation will be a better place if most people are happy and satisfied with their lives.

Finally, I bet you’re thinking about how we are going to afford this? Here’s my solution to make college free! There are many people who were dedicated to making college free during the primaries, especially Bernie Sanders. His plan was to increase taxes on Wall Street speculating. He was going to raise those taxes by half a percent to fund college. I hope you agree with this 100 percent.

All my best,

 Samyra Bowman