Freezing College Tuition Essay

Submitted By Rohnak-Banerjee
Words: 1186
Pages: 5

Many people overseas are taking our jobs because they have more knowledge (of the job) and are willing to work more for less. Now days, paying for basic necessities like life insurance, Medicare and even paying monthly house bills are getting really tough. To compete/survive in the working world it is important to get a good job. To get a good job it is important to get a good college degree. But here is the problem, college is way too expensive. Even when college students become employed most of their pay goes to pay off their student debt. Students cannot get a good college degree because they don’t have the money to get into college in the first place. They lost before they even begun. The price however can be reduced through scholarships and grants. Now, all of a sudden there are some institutions that want to increase tuition prices to a point were even scholarships won’t make that much of a difference. That is unacceptable. Which is why I am in favor in freezing college tuition for student who are already paying a lot for college and don’t want to pay more.
One big reason for freezing college loan debt is because of the massive student loan debt students have after they graduate. Most students attend public universities and public universities don’t offer many students full rides. Now that some institutions are thinking of increasing tuition rates that student debt will go through the roof. According to the Education Department, between 2005 and 2012 college enrollment rose just 21 percent. During that time, student-loan debt rose 105 percent (2). According to CNN the average student loan debt last year was 29,400 (7). With a lot of debt, even employed college graduates struggle under that debt burden. They can’t get a house or a car when they want, some even stay with their parents so they can save enough money to pay off their debt. According to the New York Federal Reserve the amount of student debt standing in the U.S. has quintupled in the past decade (3). Many students work hard in college so they are eligible receive scholarships and grants to reduce that student debt. According to the National Center for Education Statistics 75 – 85 percent of students receive scholarships (4). This is an impressive statistic but how many students with scholarships are still in massive debt? About 92 percent of students who receive scholarships are still in debt (5). College cost is already high enough, average institutions total charge average 39,518 (6). As the price for a college education increased so does the ability to pay for it has diminished. This is why we should freeze college tuition, in order to honor the decision of the students who want to better themselves by continuing there education. Students deserve to have a quality education without having to deal with such a burden in the future.
The economy today is in major crisis. It is highly competitive. Some of the nation’s largest corporations have cut their workforces by 2.9 million people over the last decade and hired over 2.4 million people overseas (8). This has cause mass unemployment all over America. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment (as of 2/07/14) is at 6.6 percent (9). If people want to survive in an economy like this it is very important to get a well paying job. How do you get a well paying job? Get a college degree. So many studies have shown that earning a college degree is linked to better employment rates. According to the US Bureau of labor statistics high school grads with no college have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent and those that hold bachelor degrees have unemployment rate of 4.3 percent (10). So it is safe to presume that going to college and earning a degree will most likely give students a secure future. If students work hard enough they can get into some of the best colleges of the country, but it is not admission that is the problem, it is affordability. Many students’ choices of good colleges are