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.”
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college, economic crisis, tuition, tuition costs in News/Commentary
college, economic crisis, tuition, tuition costs in News/Commentary
Youth voters are issue voters
“Young people are voting, and they are voting in record numbers, because of the issues they care about,” said Williams during a National Education Association conference call.
“We found out that since 2000 the cost of an average public college’s tuition and fees has risen over 58%. The average debt a college graduate faces can sometimes prevent 22% from attending any college at all, and 48% of college qualified high school graduates from attending a four year institution.”
The low youth turnout in previous elections has been partially attributed to difficulties in the registration process. To counter this, organizations like Rock the Vote have been holding massive voter registration drives.
“This year we’ve had over 2.54 million people download a voter registration form from our website...we’re injecting million of young voters into the political process, and if we look back to 2004, 82 of registered young people voted, and we expect to see at least those same rates again,” said Executive Director of Rock the Vote Heather Smith.
The youth vote is expected to play a role in state elections as well. Harris Parnell of the League of Youth Voters pointed to a California ballot initiative that would fund prisons at the expense of the education.
“California voters are going to have to vote on proposition 6, which basically puts more money from the California general fund into the prison system, which is happening at the same time the state has defunded the University of California system, so young voters are making a connection between the educational hardships they’re facing, and the state’s decision to direct resources elsewhere.
Smith says that the importance of the youth vote has been acknowledged by those running. “Candidates are paying attention to them, and you’re seeing everyone from senate candidates on down the ballot to the presidential [candidates], really for the first time in history, reaching out and asking young people for their votes.”