Rising Costs of Tuition Blog Post

            I’m sure we have all been wondering for some time now if our generation is ever going to make it through the economic crisis that we are facing. It’s in the minds of every college student and most young adults as well. The student debt crisis is one that our country has struggled with over time and the problem is getting exponentially worse. Many attribute our current situation to a simple matter of supply and demand, and with much more financial aid these days colleges still need to pay their professors, causing a cycle of rising costs annually. While this is true to some extent, there has to be something that can be done to stabilize our current tuition costs, at the very least.

 

Considering that a number of foreign countries such as Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, and more provide free or low-cost tuition for both public and private colleges, how is it that we have gotten to where we are to be spending trillions of dollars on our student debt? It is important to consider how this affects the millions of students who are concerned with paying off their debt from pursuing a higher education. In countries with affordable schooling there are opportunities for those students to participate in purchasing housing, starting families, and making progress in society, whereas we are set back by our massive student debt. We spend so much on college tuition nowadays that most people have debt until they are in their thirties or even forties, so why is it that other countries are able to finish school with no debt at all and graduates have the opportunity to immediately enter the labor force and start their lives?

 

Here are some scary statistics about our current student debt:

• The average college student has over $30,000 in student debt, and that takes years to pay off

• Today, college students in the U.S. owe a total of 1.71 trillion dollars in student debt, and that includes 44.7 million people

• The increase in college debt has risen 20% in the last five years, and more than 300% in the last fifteen years (Song 1)

• Many college graduates are choosing to live at home and decide not to make deposits on houses and put off starting families, due to worry about student loans

• Foreign countries with free college only spend around $15,000 per student every year for higher education, and that only amounts to less than 1% of the country’s GDP (Akhtar 1)

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While the U.S. does provide income-driven plans for borrowers,

even supporters of the notion agree that it is much too complicated

to actually provide much benefit to people who need it. The option

is for borrowers who don’t have incomes high enough for standard

loan plans, so they pay a percentage of whatever earnings they

make and after 20-25 years any outstanding debt is forgiven. This

would be a viable plan for many if it didn’t end up having the same

effect as regular student loan plans, but it does help prevent

borrowers from defaulting on their payments. President Biden has

passed a new plan for student loan forgiveness and there is

opportunity for up to $50,000 in forgiveness hopefully coming soon.

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However, forgiving debt doesn’t help the problem when there are still billions of dollars owed. The plan will help low-income borrowers that may not be able to afford their payments, but there are also many reasons people are opposed to debt forgiveness. It can be argued that it is unfair to those who have worked hard to already pay off their debt, and the missed opportunity of workers who have chosen not to pursue a degree because of the costs. These problems are an unavoidable side effect as forgiveness will help many resolve their debt and help contributing members of society move forward, but there is a cost associated with all of the debt we have already acquired and what will continue to build up unless something is done to break down the root of the problem.

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While there is speculation, it has held true that a college degree is useful in entering the labor force and leads to a better payoff, which allows students with debt the opportunity to pay it off faster, and then are better off when they break even. That being said, it does beg the question whether many students should pursue a degree at all, when following a career path where a degree does not make much difference, or they could be making more money without going through more schooling and would therefore be able to participate in that field sooner and have more opportunity over time. The Brookings’s article contributing to this discussion, argues that “The payoff is not so great for students who borrow and don’t get a degree or those who pay a lot for a certificate or degree that employers don’t value, a problem that has been particularly acute among for-profit schools.” (Looney 1)

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While many people believe a college degree is very important, which is true

for many fields of the work force, there is also a large portion of people who

may not need a degree, or even are convinced to get a degree that potential

employers will not require or necessarily want. There is also a very negative

effect on those who choose to start college and still acquire debt but do not

finish with a degree because of personal reasons. There are many paths that

students take through every career path and for many it makes more sense

to have a degree rather than not but a degree is not something everyone

needs, and some may be better off without because of the huge costs

associated with years of schooling and tuition.

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Student loan forgiveness offers the opportunity to help balance out the debt that students have racked up over the years. However, there is still a problem with how much schools are charging students every year, and over time it may lead to less high school graduates pursuing degrees because they don’t see the payoff or don’t think it’s worth it. With foreign countries providing examples of free or low-cost schooling and its widespread benefits, it seems like a pipe dream to consider whether we as a country could move towards more affordable schooling, and if we could ever possibly get rid of our debt altogether and have absolutely free higher education.

 

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Works Cited

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Akhtar, Allana. “7 Countries Where Higher Education Is Free.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 19 Sept. 2019,

www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-free-higher-education-no-tuition-college#sweden-does-not-charge-tuition-for-both-public-and-private-colleges-1.

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Faust, Janine. “State Should Step up to Address Rising Tuition.” The Pitt News, 20 Aug. 2018, pittnews.com/article/133881/opinions/state-

should-step-up-to-address-rising-tuition/.

 

Lane, Ryan. “Joe Biden's Student Loan Plan: What's Happening Now.” NerdWallet, 12 Mar. 2021,

www.nerdwallet.com/article/loans/student-loans/joe-biden-student-loans.

 

Looney, Adam, et al. “Who Owes All That Student Debt? And Who'd Benefit If It Were Forgiven?” Brookings, Brookings, 27 Oct. 2020,

www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/who-owes-all-that-student-debt-and-whod-benefit-if-it-were-forgiven/.

 

Song, Justin. “Average Student Loan Debt in America: 2019 Facts & Figures.” ValuePenguin, ValuePenguin, 4 Jan. 2021,

www.valuepenguin.com/average-student-loan-debt.

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Zylstra, Sarah Eekhoff, et al. “Tuition Is Rising and Enrollment Is Holding. So Why Are Christian Colleges Struggling?” The Gospel Coalition, 15

Aug. 2019, www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/tuition-rising-enrollment-holding-christian-colleges-struggling/.

 

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