8th November 2016

Letter to the Next President

            Dear Future President,

     As an eighth grade student, I’ll be going to college in five years, and with any luck, not paying nearly as much as students pay now. The current student debt totals $1.4 trillion, with an average debt of $37,000 per student. That’s insane. According to an article from The Christian Science Monitor, "This average is higher than ever before, and it represents a huge range of average debt loads at different schools, from $3,000 to more than $50,000.” Debt is forcing many students not to finish college and go straight into work. The rise in college fees has been an issue for many years now and it haunts millions of Americans.

     Not only is college extremely expensive, but the fees just keep increasing. “In the four years since the 2011-2012 academic year, net tuition has increased by 3.1%,” says Tampa Bay Times. People can not afford college now, and their debt will only increase. I, myself, sometimes worry about college and how much it will cost. But there is some good news. Fees are rising, but the increase has gone down. The New York Times says, “The average rate of increase has gone from 3.9 percent in 2012 to 2.27 percent in 2016.” Maybe we can keep lowering that rate of increase.

     Don’t forget that colleges require you to buy the textbooks yourself. College textbooks cost a fortune, and it stockpiles onto the already trifling cost. The cost of buying textbooks can add up to about $1,000 a year or more. That’s not all, though. The textbooks keep increasing. “College textbook prices rise about 6 percent, on average, every year,” according to The New York Times. When textbooks rise, so does student loan debt. What I want to know is, why do public schools hand out textbooks for free, but not colleges? Textbooks should not be costing this much.

     All students want to be successful. People who want a great education should get it. So I ask of you, please lower college tuition. Not everyone can afford it, and we all have different financial statuses. Some students are luckier than others. After students graduate, they want to be worry-free and they want to find a job. They don’t want to worry about paying off their student loans.

Sincerely,

Haleigh

Works Cited Page

Beck, Christina. "Average Student Loan Debt Increases Again." The Christian Science Monitor 19 Oct. 2016: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

Bernard, Tara Siegel. "Cheaper College Textbooks." The New York Times 7 Aug. 2010: B4(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.

Burns, Katherine. "WE'LL GIVE COLLEGE TUITION PROMISE PARTIAL CREDIT." Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersburg, FL] 12 Sept. 2016: n. pag. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 4 Nov. 2016.