Tuesday
Oct212008
Economic crisis threatens college students
Low SAT scores are not the only thing keeping students from attending college. While there is no shortage of federal education loans, the economic crises has prevented many families from receiving private loans for tuition.
“This summer I found out that [George Washington University] was going to give me $46, 000 in student loans in grants. I only needed $7,000 more to attend the university and I knew I would have to take that out in a private loan,” said sophomore Ash McDaniel during an National Education Association teleconference on college affordability.
“I was prepared to take out these loans again, and was okay with that. I wasn’t prepared for what happened on Wall Street.”
The rising cost of tuition exacerbates the financial burden facing college bound students. According to Bob Brandon of the Campaign for College Affordability tuition in public institution have gone up 60 percent in the past eight years.
“The average student now is graduating with $21,000 in debt and two years ago the department of education estimated that over 400,000 students a year forgo a 4-year-education simply because of the cost. They cannot afford it.”
Brandon says that this situation can have a negative effect on the U.S. economy.
“A recent report projected that we’ll be 16 million higher education degrees short of the need projected to have a vibrant economy within the next 15 years. We continue to see ourselves fall further and further behind in what is an increasingly competitive in a global market place.”
The mounting cost of student loans have prevented students fortunate enough to attend college from pursuing careers in public service.
“At least a quarter of the students that graduate from four year school have more debt than they can afford to repay on the average teacher’s salary...and 47 percent have more debt than they would be able to repay if they wanted to go into social work,” said Brandon.
Making college affordable has played an important role in the 2008 election. Andrew Myers of Myers Research, who performed a poll on the public views on tuition costs, explained why:
“Every proposal to make college more affordable tested above majority level support...there’s a reason that we hear Barack Obama talking quite often about college affordability in his speeches. It’s part of his stump speech. You hear it in nearly every event he attends. It is because it is part of the economic debate, it is a solid, important part of the economic debate.”
“This summer I found out that [George Washington University] was going to give me $46, 000 in student loans in grants. I only needed $7,000 more to attend the university and I knew I would have to take that out in a private loan,” said sophomore Ash McDaniel during an National Education Association teleconference on college affordability.
“I was prepared to take out these loans again, and was okay with that. I wasn’t prepared for what happened on Wall Street.”
The rising cost of tuition exacerbates the financial burden facing college bound students. According to Bob Brandon of the Campaign for College Affordability tuition in public institution have gone up 60 percent in the past eight years.
“The average student now is graduating with $21,000 in debt and two years ago the department of education estimated that over 400,000 students a year forgo a 4-year-education simply because of the cost. They cannot afford it.”
Brandon says that this situation can have a negative effect on the U.S. economy.
“A recent report projected that we’ll be 16 million higher education degrees short of the need projected to have a vibrant economy within the next 15 years. We continue to see ourselves fall further and further behind in what is an increasingly competitive in a global market place.”
The mounting cost of student loans have prevented students fortunate enough to attend college from pursuing careers in public service.
“At least a quarter of the students that graduate from four year school have more debt than they can afford to repay on the average teacher’s salary...and 47 percent have more debt than they would be able to repay if they wanted to go into social work,” said Brandon.
Making college affordable has played an important role in the 2008 election. Andrew Myers of Myers Research, who performed a poll on the public views on tuition costs, explained why:
“Every proposal to make college more affordable tested above majority level support...there’s a reason that we hear Barack Obama talking quite often about college affordability in his speeches. It’s part of his stump speech. You hear it in nearly every event he attends. It is because it is part of the economic debate, it is a solid, important part of the economic debate.”
tagged 
college, economic crisis, tuition, tuition costs in News/Commentary
college, economic crisis, tuition, tuition costs in News/Commentary
Reader Comments (1)
Students and parents need to realize that the federal government is not the only source for help with financial aid. States also have their own programs, but they need to do more. Voters need to start holding state politicians to account also.
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