Sorry in advance about this long blog and my ranting.. It’s a touchy subject for myself and I’m sure many others. Think about how much you pay for college?. Now think about how much in aid you received last year compared to this year?. Big difference isn’t it? That’s because of state and government aid has been cut yet again for students going for higher education. I read a Policy matters article on congressweb.com , where they talk about how tuition prices have gone up and how state and government funding has been cut. They are basicly shutting the door on opputunity for students...
In the article it has the top 10 higher education state policy issues in 2011. I will direct you to the two I’m discussing, number 4 and 5. “Given sustained financial pressures on students and families, combined with ongoing state budget crises, state student aid programs will be further stretched in 2011.” I know this is an old statement but it’s a current issue, we have been hit with the start of the cuts this year. President Obama has gone away with the ACG (Academic Competitiveness Grant) which affected me and I’m sure many other students. I’m not clear on his reasoning’s and honestly I don’t care to understand. That’s not the only one he has gone away with, which is the sad part. The report “cautions that “the worst might still be yet to come at the state level” due to states’ economies lagging the national economic recovery.” And we thought it was already bad, I hate to think about how much it’ll be next year for me to attend school. The states have lessened the amount of aid given to their students which was based on need and metric. I currently have already racked up 10,000 in loan debt for when I graduate (I’m only a sophomore) and I still pay almost 1000 a semester on top of my loans for housing, books, programs, and class material. During the 2011 year, published tuition prices continued to “escalate at a level far exceeding inflation. According to the College Board, published in-state tuition and fee prices at public four-year institutions—averaging $7,605 in 2010-11—increased $555 or 7.9 percent compared to 2009-10.” That’s also in-state rates, which I’m an out of state resident. Why does the cost keep rising? I realize states that rely on proceeds from cigarettes or the lottery is in danger, but there has to be another way to supplement the money. Education should not be this hard and costly to achieve.
What I don’t understand is why college is so expensive in the first place? What does our money really go towards? It’s clearly not put aside for books for the students, that’s just another tab the student has to run up. It clearly doesn’t go to busing all students. Sure we have a few buses that well drive students around the campus or up town or to the mall. Students should have to pay a fare for those and dis-clude it from tuition. Majority of students don’t even use it and we are paying other students free gas rides. We rarely get paper copies of anything anymore, so our money isn’t spent on paper. I know the construction on campus isn’t funded by our tuition but why not use alumni donations to lower the cost of attendance? Overall I just please need someone to explain this to me.
I understand I’m probably being closed minded about some issues but this just doesn’t make sense to me. Let’s take away the students ability to pay for higher education. Therefore lowering the number of students with degrees, who will someday run this country. Makes sense right?! To save our world tomorrow we need to help the kids today. That’s why I want to be an education major. I want to teach the bright minds of tomorrow and help those students who will someday be taking care of me.
Budget cuts are a scary thing.
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