Got College Tuition?

Got Tuition?, a campaign by the National Education Association, hosted a conference call to discuss the importance of young voters in the 2008 election and the ways to lower the cost of a college education.

Twenty-four million young voters turned out to the polls on Tuesday, up two million from 2004. They voted by a 2-to-1 margin for Barack Obama. During his campaign, Obama courted young voters by adding the lowering of college tuition rates to his agenda. Obama also supported a greater utilization of the Department of Education’s Direct Loan Program, which would be a more efficient way of giving out loans than private loan programs. Bob Brandon of the Campaign for College Affordability also suggested investing more in state governments, which have been the primary cause for tuition increases at state colleges.

“The tuition for public institutions..has gone up 60 percent since 2000,” said Brandon. As a result, 400,000 people a year put off going to college because of the cost, he said. This means we will have four million fewer higher education degrees over the next decade. “At a time when the economy becomes increasingly global and the need for us to compete in the world, it’s the very time we should be investing in turning out more college-educated workers to meet the challenges of the future.”