Linda Dunn
Once again, our country seems to be divided into two opposing sides on a matter that deeply affects many of us.
On one side, we have many pointing out that they and/or their families worked hard to pay their tuition/pay off their student loans and thus they are vehemently opposed to the Biden giveaway for student loan deadbeats.
On the other side, we have many making similar claims about experiences with college and student loans but supporting student loan “forgiveness” programs.
This argument has far too often been characterized as one side saying, “I had to suffer so I want you to suffer too” and the other side saying, “I suffered so I don’t want you to suffer too.”
This is a cheap shot at those of us who hold conservative values about personal responsibilities and seems intended to divert us from the question we should really be asking:
Why is a college degree so crazy more expensive than it was back in our era?
And before we dig up the old, “everyone wants to be a philosopher but no one wants to be a plumber” argument, let’s remember that the average cost of vocational education in the United States is about $33,000. Yes, that’s considerably less than the average cost for a bachelor’s degree but many who attend vocational school are also struggling with student loan debts.
Before we older folks criticize the younger ones for poor choices or slacker attitudes, we should first ask ourselves, “Could we do today what we did when we worked our way through college?”
The year I graduated from Greenfield-Central (1970), the average in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public non-profit university was $394.
By 1995, that cost had surged to $2,848. Last year, that average amount was $10,560.
This is a “Michael Jordan couldn’t jump that high” kind of jump in fees.
But wait. The problem is even worse than it first appears. It’s not just “how much does it cost” in terms of money. The real question is: “how many hours does the student have to work to pay those fees?”
In 1970 the minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. That meant it took 246 hours to cover the annual college tuition & fees at our less expensive universities. If we had a summer job [working those 12 weeks between spring and fall semesters] we could earn almost double the amount needed to cover tuition.
It’s easy to see why my generation thinks those with student loan debt are slackers and whiners… but “just get a summer job” stopped being a solution long ago.
Plug in the minimum wages rate for 1995 ($4.25 per hr.) and you would need to work 670 hours to pay the 1995 “average cost” for less expensive colleges.
Now look at the cost last year with minimum wage jobs paying $7.25 per hour. Students would have needed to work 1,457 hours to cover the cost of tuition.
Could we have done that?
About forty-three million Americans have student loan debt because for them, there was/is no other viable option. The average student loan debt as of June 2022 was $39,366; which equals more than credit card and auto loan balances combined and is second only to home mortgages in the amount of debt carried by households in the U.S.
Canada’s university tuition fees are 27% less than our universities. In Germany, 16 states abolished tuition fees.
They and other foreign countries are leaving us in the dust in providing educational opportunities for their younger generations while we soar above every other country in the world for highest average student loan debt. This is not an area where we should be proudly chanting, “We’re Number 1.”
If we want our future generations to be well-educated and capable of competing effectively in the world marketplace, then we need to take a long, hard look at how higher education is funded in America and make some appropriate changes.
A lifelong resident of Hancock County, Linda Dunn is an author and retired Department of Defense employee. Send comments to [email protected].
