"Public education as a whole came under
brutal attack as part of the Obama
administration’s effort to shift the burden of
the financial crisis onto the backs of the
working class."
Tuition hikes implemented throughout the United States, placing ever growing financial burden on students
By Kayla Costa
3 June 2017
While the academic
year has drawn to a close for most colleges and universities, students
returning to school in the fall can expect to pay even more on top of already
unaffordable tuition rates, as significant increases have been announced at
campuses in several states across the United States for the 2017-2018 school
year.
The Board of Regents in Montana voted last Friday to raise tuition
at the majority of public campuses. Tuition hikes range from 2.3 percent at
Montana State University to 28 percent at University of Montana-Western as part
of an effort to “equalize costs across the state.” In real value, these
increases represent additional costs of up to $1,220 annually for resident
students.
California State University’s governing board also voted last week
on a 4.9 percent increase for resident tuition at all its campuses state-wide.
Undergraduates at CSU will be paying an additional $270, and graduates an
additional $438. This decision comes five months after the University of
California system approved a 2.5 percent increase for tuition and fees.
Nearly all public colleges in New Mexico have raised tuition by an
average of 7.5 percent, representing additional costs between $95 and $250.
These hikes were announced in tandem with a legislature vote to reduce coverage
provided by the Lottery Scholarship—a financial aid program for state residents
covering 26,000 students—from 90 percent of tuition costs to 60 percent.
In Oregon, tuition is set to increase by 8.4 percent at Portland
State University and 10.6 percent at the University of Oregon, amounting to
extra costs of up to $1,000. Similar increases have been approved in Wisconsin,
Iowa, Arizona, Missouri, and other states over the past six months.
Adjusting for inflation, tuition at public universities has risen
by a staggering 538 percent between 1985 and 2013. Just since 2012, tuition
costs have increased for public 2-year and 4-year colleges by about 10 percent.
During those same periods, state funding for public higher
education has drastically declined. Forty-six states spend less per student
than just before the 2008-2009 recession, with a decline by more than 30
percent in nine states.
With less funding from the state and federal levels, the burden
for educational costs is placed on the backs of students and their families
whose means have been increasingly constrained by stagnant wages and the rising
cost of living. These hardships mean that working class students, and many from
middle- and upper-middle class families, will leave school with crippling
amounts of debt.
Scholarships and grants, earnings and savings, and student loans
make up the three main categories of post-secondary funding for higher
education. At public universities, scholarships and grants cover 30 to 52
percent of net attendance costs for students from families making under $75,000
a year. Federal and state aid has remained relatively stagnant since the
recession and is projected to decline. These funding opportunities are becoming
more and more scarce as federal grants, such as the Pell grant, and state
sponsored financial aid programs, like those in New Mexico, continue to be cut.
Earnings and savings, from both students and their families, are
an unlikely counterweight to rising tuition. Though the vast majority of
families value college education for their children, over half are not able to
build an adequate college savings by the time their kids reach 18. Nearly
three-quarters of all Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings, and
one-third has nothing saved. Most full-time college students work at least 20
hours a week, with almost all their earnings going towards basic costs of
living and miscellaneous education costs.
The rising cost of school, coupled with pressing economic
conditions and dwindling public funding helps explain the explosive growth in
student loan borrowing. Over 70 percent of working-class students graduate with
student loan debt, with an average of approximately $37,000. In the last decade,
tuition costs have grown 35 percent while student loan debt has grown by 400
percent. Student loans have been the primary method of offsetting the hikes in
tuition and fees for the past decade, since they are widely accessible and
backed by the federal government.
Most students, who stand to lose financial aid and do not have
additional personal resources to pull from, will be forced to take out even
larger loan amounts. Not only is this situation adding to the $1.4 trillion and
growing student debt bubble, it is compounding the burden students face both
before and after leaving school.
During college, students struggle to maintain a balance between
school, work, and personal life often under tight financial constraints. Recent
studies reveal that over 40 percent of college students receive SNAP benefits,
and half of community college students have inconsistent housing. One in five
students today is over 25 years old, many of whom are supporting families of
their own. With these conditions, it is no surprise that campuses have reported
sharp increases in the frequency and severity of anxiety, depression, and
stress-related mental health issues.
After obtaining a well-earned degree, graduates still face few
hopeful prospects. The average student leaves school in their mid-twenties to
begin their “independent” life. With debt in the tens of thousands of dollars,
loan companies grant borrowers a “grace” period of six months before onerous
payments begin, which for many will not end for decades.
Indebted graduates are less likely to start businesses, buy homes
or cars, or make other significant purchases. Ten percent of young college
graduates 24 or younger are neither employed nor enrolled in graduate school.
Average wages for employed graduates are only 0.7 percent higher than they were
in 2000, reflecting a shortage in quality jobs. The material and emotional
effects this financial stress is having on an entire generation cannot be
overstated.
These dire conditions have developed as the top 10 percent of the
population have gained tremendously. Even students from these upper layers have
more opportunities than their working class peers, as they can afford 90
percent of universities without a lifelong debt burden or immediate financial
stress.
Furthermore, the ruling class has profited directly from rising
education costs and debt. Student loan servicing companies rake in billions of
annual profits, corporate partners cash in on the market, and school
administrators lead lavish lifestyles, all while the majority of students
shoulder the expense.
Under these unprecedented conditions, it is not surprising that
youth and students are beginning to look for a political solution.
All students have a right to a free education, to quality jobs,
and affordable housing. However, only under socialism, where the working class
holds power, can these rights be guaranteed. The International Youth and
Students for Social Equality and Socialist Equality Party call upon students,
youth, and workers to take up a fight against the ruling class, with a
revolutionary socialist program that defends the interests of the working class
and youth internationally.
LA RAZA
JANET NAPOLITANO GETS DEPORTED!
America’s Super-rich Live 15 Years Longer!
………….. America’s Bludgeoned Middle-Class Dies Young, Addicted and Poor!
WHICH SIDE OF THE EQUATION ARE YOU DIGGING YOUR CHILDRENS’ GRAVES?
“Millions
of middle class families have been driven to bankruptcy by illness
and
medical bills.”
“This dramatic contrast in
life expectancy between the rich and poor is directly correlated to the growth
of obscene wealth at the top among a tiny elite and entrenched poverty among
growing numbers of people at the bottom.”….. BUT AMERICA STILL FINDS BILLIONS
TO HAND TO MEXICAN INVADERS, WHICH INCLUDES “FREE” HEALTHCARE.
*
In the first part of
the Lancet series, “Inequality and the health-care system in
the USA,” the British medical journal’s researchers found that these
income-based disparities in US life expectancy are worsened by the for-profit
US health care system itself, which relies on private insurers, pharmaceutical
companies and health care chains. It is also the most expensive health system
in the world.
*
NOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HANDS
MILLIONS OF MEXICAN SOCIAL SECURITY? THEY GO BACK TO MEXICO TO CASH THEIR SSI
CHECKS AND VOTE BY MAIL FOR MORE!
“The lifetime costs of Social Security and Medicare
benefits of illegal immigrant beneficiaries of President Obama’s executive
amnesty would be well over a trillion dollars, according to Heritage Foundation
expert Robert Rector’s prepared testimony for a House panel obtained in advance
by Breitbart News.”
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