Everyone knows that college is too expensive. The question is — who's going to do something about it?
On average, college costs more than 12 times as much as it did 30 years ago.
That’s a ridiculous amount of money, as any student who has attended college in those years can attest to. Rising tuition costs far outstrip inflation for all other major expenses.
The states play a big role, as cuts to publicly funded universities have led to skyrocketing bills. Here in South Carolina, we rank third nationally in terms of worst cuts over the last seven years.
For a long time, blame has been shifted around and nothing has been done to combat rising costs.
In an area where our state leaders are failing, our national leaders are starting to take notice. The youth vote is something politicians can no longer ignore, and college costs and student debt is a key issue for our generation.
In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama proposed a 20-year cap on student loan payments, a $10,000 tax credits per family for college and increased pell grants. His latest initiative, currently before Congress, calls for free community college for all.
Now, as the 2016 presidential election begins in earnest, college tuition and student loan debt has become a political issue once again.
The leading candidates in the Democratic Party, the party that captures a majority of the youth vote nowadays, have both released plans to reduce the cost of higher education.
Bernie Sanders’ plan, the College for All Act, would eliminate tuition at 4-year public colleges and universities like USC. He would also provide re-financing options for those currently under the soul-crushing specter that are student loans. Sanders would pay for this by taxing Wall Street.
Hillary Clinton’s plan, the New College Compact, is more reasonable but also more modest. It calls for free public college, but doesn’t mandate it. The plan would also mean better refinancing, and would be paid for by a tax on the wealthiest one percent.
Just like Obama’s lofty goals, it’s a long shot that either of these proposals will happen while anyone going here is still in school. And neither plan addresses a larger issue — the people that went to school in those aforementioned 30 years are now crippled by loans they can’t escape and can’t necessarily pay.
But it’s great that this idea of free public college has come into the conversation. Many countries provide free higher education, and the U.S. should be one of them.
For their part, the Republicans maintain that the states should retain control over higher education, and promote competition based on price for schools. I think that’s the status quo, and what has gotten us into this mess.
On the one hand, I don’t think education should be a political issue. But it’s apparent that part of this crisis is state leadership (including ours) failing their civic responsibility, and if national political figures can shift the conversation towards solutions, we should encourage and celebrate that.
It’s time somebody did something before our entire generation goes broke.