I am a single father, and the time is fast approaching when my son will leave the nest. Over the last several months we have been deluged with mailings and emails from colleges across he country. We have had college wrestling coaches scout him and armed forces recruiters trying to talk to him. So far I have held the Army, Marines, and Navy at bay—but the cool pilot factor of the Air Force may hold some allure to him.
As the father of a high school junior I have found this all of it to be overwhelming. ACT, SAT, and AP tests. College visits, talking to scouts, and trying to figure out how to pay for it all. These same conversations take place every year across the country, and kids seem to do all right. It is the parents who are worn ragged.
Paying for college is the biggest worry for this household. University of Wisconsin—Madison, my son’s preferred school, could cost up to $25,000 a year to attend (depending on if he lives on campus or at home). I don’t know of too many people in my income bracket that could save up $100,000 for four years of college. This is a public college, and it currently costs $100,000 to get a bachelor’s degree there. To me, that is insane.
It’s a mystery how the powers that be in the state of Wisconsin (and other states around the country) expect the coming generations to pursue higher education. We will, at some point, see higher education costs climb so high that only the wealthy will be able to afford to go.
For the 1976-1977 school year, adjusted for inflation, the average cost of tuition, room, and board was around $8,000. In 2016, it is $20,000. Why has the cost of a college education gone up? The answer lies in a variety of reasons that range from funding cuts to increased administrative staff to more students attending college to updating and building new facilities to work with today’s (and hopefully tomorrow’s) technology.
But the question remains: How does a middle-class family pay for college? For most, the idea of saving $100,000 for college is out of the question. Scholarships and grants will ease some of the load, but there is no guarantee those will be there from year to year. The rest is made up with student loans—which is really nothing more than legalized loan sharking. Once you have the debt, you have it forever. Yeas ago, I saw a comedian perform. I can’t recall his name and will not tell this story as well as he did. He had joined the Marines after he dropped out of college. The bit he did was that he was sitting in a bar in the middle of nowhere in Korea. The phone behind the bar rings, and it’s for him. On the other end of the line: Sallie Mae asking where his payment was. He then suggested that someone take a student loan out in Osama bin Laden’s name, as they would surely track him down and get their payment.
The point of that story is that taking out a student loan is the new indentured servitude. You cannot escape the debt, and you cannot discharge the debt through bankruptcy. You just have never-ending debt—up to 30 years’ worth, in some cases. How can we expect the youth of today to get started in life if they are buried in debt?
My son’s goal is to work for NASA, preferably as an astronaut. How do I get him there, and how will he achieve that goal without out being indebted for three decades? This is, of course, a rhetorical question, and the two of us will somehow figure it out. But this same conversation is going on in households across the country. It is a conversation that should not have to happen. Post-high school education (including technical schools and four-year institutions) should be affordable and available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.
Sadly, with the current leadership in this country and in many Republican-led states, there is a push to cut education funding and to turn all public institutions of higher education into job training programs. Instead of turning out well-rounded, critical-thinking graduates, we will see college graduates trained specifically for one occupation.
The dilemma is: What do we do about the high cost of education today? Right now, there is not much we can do. But come 2018, we can change things. We have to vote every tea party-affiliated, right-wing reactionary out of office. Yes it’s easier said than done, but we have to do it. And I have to do my part to make sure my son can follow his dream of being a part of NASA.