Posted on 04/11/2016 1:03:32 PM PDT by pabianice
My student debt surrounds me like the construction on the University of Massachusetts campus; no matter how hard I try to avoid it, it shows up everywhere. It keeps me from getting to class on time, it ripped a hole in my backpack and it just puts me in a terrible mood. Like the construction, my student debt affects my every decision: what books I buy for classes versus which ones I can access for free, the amount of hours I work to pay my rent and if I can even continue my education at UMass. You can get rid of the Hasbrouck fence, but student loans are for life.
Lucas Coughlin, another Collegian writer, claimed in his op-ed on Jan. 26, 2016 that college should not be free. I disagree. Higher education is a right. Free higher education would take the burden off students (and non-students) while providing access to good paying jobs and economic advancement to people whose family wealth or personal financial circumstances do not allow them access to college without a life-long debt sentence. The total amount of student debt in the United States surpassed $1.3 trillion in 2015 and the UMass class of 2015 graduated with an average of $28,565 in debt. The burden of student debt makes going into the job market post-college extremely stressful.
The problem with higher education now is that it is becoming less and less accessible due to skyrocketing costs and wage stagnation at the time when more folks need it. Colleges need to be more accessible and turn into a viable option for students instead of something that’s immediately out of the question, or is an unattainable goal. Low income students and students of color are less likely to afford the rapid rise in the cost of higher education, and this limits opportunities for a huge number of potential college students.
To clarify, when I talk about free higher education, I mean completely free: four years of tuition-free public higher education as well as access to free food, housing, books and any other cost necessary. Right now, one-third of UMass students currently work on campus, which does not include the residential assistants and peer mentors in Residential Life or off-campus jobs. The total number of students who work at UMass is significantly higher, and many of these students rely on their jobs to stay in school. Even with those jobs, students are still accumulating debt.
If higher education were free, low-income and working class students wouldn’t have to chose between working long hours at low-wage jobs to help finance their education, which often distracts from and jeopardizes their education. Many opponents of free higher education argue that students need to “work hard” and “earn their way” for a mediocre paying job after graduation and that current college students think we’re entitled to everything. Last semester, I was working 40 hours a week – some labor unpaid – and ended up with the worst GPA I’ve ever had in my academic career. My student debt is around $45,000 right now, and I don’t know how I’ll be able to pay that off with an 11-percent interest rate. I am struggling, and many other students are struggling as well. How is that entitlement when we’re just trying to get by?
Coughlin thinks students can get their higher “education degree cheaply” in today’s society. He suggests students should “attend junior colleges for a year or two, or attend a commuter school.” But what happens when these students move to universities to complete the remainder of their four-year degrees? What I want to ask Coughlin is if he and his family always considered college as an option? How many hours does he work a week? Does he work for spending money or to pay bills? Has he ever had to decide between paying rent and textbooks? Does he struggle under the weight of loans he’ll carry for decades after graduation?
Now I ask you, Coughlin, do you understand why higher education should be free? Students across the United States are demanding it and taking direct action for this to become a reality. Higher education needs to be free so students can go to college instead of being funneled into low-wage jobs with little chance for economic mobility. Higher education needs to be free so undocumented folks, who can’t even access federal financial aid, can attend college without paying from pocket. Higher education needs to be free so students can finally become learners, and not consumers and products of a privatized system.
Erika Civitarese is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at ecivitarese@umass.edu.
True for those that find work. ...
So true. My experience was 40 years ago under the GI bill. Most of us found work then because we had a working economic system. Of course now it is hard to find a job of underwater baker weaving and most of the social ideals important to liberals lately.
The problem is real.
The proposed solution is absurd.
One option is to go to gain sharing.
The college might get 2% (or lower agreed percentage) of a graduate’s income for twenty years collected by the IRS for each year of college, up to 4% for a two-year degree, 8% for a four year degree, 3% for a master’s degree and 3% for each year of law or medical school, less $300/year (2% of $15,000~=minimum wage job income).
College wouldn’t be free (it simply can’t be), but it can be debt-free for the student.
I agree with this young man, and I feel that the first step he should take is to ask his professors and administrators to work for free.
Once professors and administrators agree to work for free, lowering the cost of university would be child’s play.
“student loans are for life”
Federal student loans can be put on a 25-year/15% of income repayment plan I believe. This is usually a bad idea for a person, but it is a good personal option for some people.
If you think about it college for the intelligent and ambitious is already almost free. My granddaughters have a total of 6 years tuition-free. They have to live, one works to pay the bills, the other lives at home and cooks and cleans for her father but they’d have household expenses no matter what they were doing in life.
The oldest one is going to grad school next semester and has found a company to pay her tuition if she promises them a year in their employ. The other one will take online classes this summer and work so she can graduate with her OTA degree and her bachelor’s degree in Rehab in 3 years.
My grandson just got a 32 on the ACT and I expect him to be offered many scholarships and if he takes school seriously, he also should get through w/o debt.
My other grandson, a C student, didn’t want to go to college, his parents wanted him to go and it is worth it to them to pay his tuition but he has to come home every weekend and work.
I was just reading this morning that only 58% of the students in public universities graduate in 6 years and it isn’t all that much better for private universities. There are options out there for everyone, especially the poor.
I suspect that many think that free college will include living expenses too.
Look at what it's done to public education! It wouldn't be long before there would be behavior problems in college classrooms!
People don't value "free" stuff!
I graduated with a 2.0 GPA at age 22. I went back 8 years later and got an Accounting degree. My Accounting GPA was 3.4.
Well... she is also the author of...
“Virginity: the importance does not exist”
What a deep intellectual we have here..
Go to college online. The university though want to charge the same.
Gotta pay those pensions.
Use Native American wisdom. Professor Apache Server works very inexpensively. :)
“College wouldn’t be free (it simply can’t be), but it can be debt-free for the student.”
Would that still apply to a student who had a Master’s Degree in Transgender Poetry but was working at Starbuck’s ?
There is so much wrong with this argument.
1) It should be free because I want to be free. I want a million dollars and a big fat steak. Doesn’t mean it should be handed to me.
2) IF we go to college then we won’t have to go to low wage jobs. The number of high wage jobs are finite. If everyone graduated with a 4 year college degree, it doesn’t mean that there will be jobs for everyone. Hell we have experienced engineers and managers working low wage jobs or part time jobs because of the state of the economy.
3) College isn’t the only source of good wage jobs. Many college graduates won’t make as much as an experienced trade skill worker even at the end of their career. Incredible jobs with good wages and benefits can be found as electricians, tool and dye workers, carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, and more.
Okay fine. Then professors and other staff at colleges must work for free. I bet that ends well. Such idiots.
You do know that most trades are now done by illegal immigrants right? Oh, it costs money to be educated in a trades, unless you’re an illegal to.
I have tradesmen in my family. Great workers. But they can’t plumb a house for less than minimum wage
There is very little need for College as it exists today. If the teachers were doing their jobs, instead of perpetuating a system that enriches their brethren, the country would be much better off. What we do have is an educational/industrial complex, a jobs program for the benefit of lazy government workers.
Ask this knob how they define free.
Do the teachers just teach for free?
Does the school just let anyone live there free?
Working for things makes them valuable.
Can I just decide to take your spot one day in free college, just because I want to? Why not? It’s free after all.
Define free, liberal nutbag writer.
And then go rot in your socialist hellhole.
Who forced you to attend this particular school and forced you to amass this debt?
God what an idiot. We are doomed, we have way too many of these adult idiot nonthink socialists out there.
The SAT have a lock on testing in US and they are not going to let it go. Of course having only a small minority of students take the test is going to bite them
Right now in many districts all the freshman sophmores and juniors take the test, yes three times!
BUCKOs!
#your_safespace_isnt_free
Overgrown parasites.
You want to be a parasite, move back into your mom’s clown hole.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.