A major topic that has been on the plate in many recent discussions and presidential debates is higher education tuition. Higher education in our society is viewed by many people as an essential part of our educational careers because it is found that people with college degrees are much more stable and productive in the work force. In our society, a college degree is said to increase our chances of receiving a better, much higher paying job than those without one. Because it is so crucial to obtain to be successful in the world we live in, the rapidly fast increasing college tuition prices have become a major problem in our country.
To put the tuition incline into perspective, in the 1980s, the average American household income was approximately fifty thousand dollars, while tuition only held at about two thousand dollars per year for private colleges, and around five hundred dollars per year at public universities. In 2015, the average household income has increased to approximately fifty three thousand dollars, and tuition has skyrocketed to an average of thirty one thousand dollars per year, almost tripling. What this means is that, while the average family is making approximately the same amount of income that they did about thirty some years ago, college tuition has become such a reach for many families that it has become one of the single most expensive investment an average american can make in their life.
For many americans in lower economic situations, this increase in tuition has set higher education out of the picture, even with financial aid on the table. It has been developing to be a privileged opportunity rather than an equal one. For most lower class citizens, college is both essential, but many times unobtainable. When living in a world that relies on a college degree to be employed at a job with wages high enough to support yourself and a family, there is a gap, or cycle that people become stuck in that has become a major issue developing larger and larger each year. Lower class citizens working minimum wage jobs do not have the ability to support themselves and/or a family, while paying a ridiculously high tuition, but their only way to gain a higher paying job is to go to college and obtain a degree.
There has been much talk about lowering tuition costs through benefits from the government and making student loans tax deductible which could very well be a good start. Obama cut much of the federal student loan interest rates and made sure people would not have to pay more than ten percent of their monthly income to student loans for twenty years, then would just have to pay taxes on the rest. I feel there is much more that needs to be done dealing with the overwhelmingly high tuition of colleges, it is a problem that is increasing at a rapid rate that is effecting more and more people every year.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/is-college-tuition-too-high.html?_r=0
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/09/political-response-to-crushing-college-debt-ratchets-up/
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/is-college-tuition-too-high.html?_r=0
http://www.pressherald.com/2015/08/09/political-response-to-crushing-college-debt-ratchets-up/
I looked into the price of college education for my stratification assignment, and along with you, the results were highly problematic. Like you said, they create a cyclical pattern: either those who cannot afford it in the first place will not attend college, or they may be forced to take out loans to pay for it. In the first case, they and their family will probably stay in the lower class (as the percentages to move up into a higher class range are low). In the second case, that person may still stay in that lower class because they are starting into the workforce with more bills to pay or may have to work throughout college which may have the possibility of detracting from their school work. Thus with the higher cost, those in the lower classes are at even more of a disadvantage. If we look at this through a conflict theorist point of view, this would benefit those in power because generally those in power are the rich, so the cost of college could keep people in their current class level.
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