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President Obama pledged more funding to mother’s returning to school, which would strengthen the economy. In his State of the Union address, a full seven pages of transcript, merely ten lines are dedicated to the issue of funding college. There are promises of grants and scholarships; however most are hard to qualify for. If a student comes from a middle class family, it is almost a punishment when it comes to the funds available for college. There are Pell grants, currently grants 5,750 to each student in a school year (Digest n.p.). That seems like enough money to make a dent in the cost of college, however with college tuition having risen 72% since the 1950s, the money can hardly cover costs of tuition and books (Pilon n.p.). There are many more grants available for low-income families, first generation college students, GED recipients, displaced workers, and single mothers. What about the twenty something housewife who decided to have a family before college? The women, who decided they wanted a child before they were 30, raised a family and saw their child off to the first day of kindergarten? The other students in the categories that receive more aid are not less deserving but it seems as if someone is punished for making average income, getting married and having parents who have a degree. There are some people who believe that the economy is not stable enough to grant people funds to go to college, loans should be given instead (Heller n.p.). There are many different loans available to a college student, most having decent interest rates and low monthly payments; some loans are not repaid until the student has graduated and found a job. These are great options for someone that can graduate and get a job within 6 months that will cover the payments. Even when the payments are low, it can take up to 20 years to pay of an education. The students, who started their degree when they were 30, will be paying on that loan until 10 years before retirement. A single semester at a community college can cost over a thousand dollars just in tuition a private university can run nearly 3 times that cost. The scariest cliché that could apply here is, “You get what you pay for.” Could that be true? Is a degree from a private college worth more than a degree from a public college? What if most of the degree was earned at a community college? Is there any hope for the costs to align with the cost of living? The costs of college have made an education a luxury. (Pilon n.p.) |
