Realities of Paying for College - Essay Example

? Paying for College Education has always been seen as an indispensable element of both individual as well as social welfare. The objective of our country has been to provide every child, a quality public education from kindergarten through college. As we know, education is free of cost from kindergarten to high school; this goal has been achieved till this level. However, the high expenses of attending colleges have made it difficult for every person to get quality education as prescribed by the goals. Though it is a fact that students enhance their intellectual growth, make new friends, and gain independence only after attending college but the consideration of paying for it plunders the experience. There are some people who believe that though college expenses is one of the largest disbursement in a person’s life span, it should be treated as an investment which will give better income, extended career prospects and higher personal contentment as returns throughout one’s life. However, this investment is only possible at a minimum cost therefore, it is necessary to reduce college expenditure. My goal, in this paper, is to establish the point that reduction of college expenditure is absolutely indispensable. To achieve this goal, I have put forward the various reasons for reducing college expenditure in five different sections. In the first section, I have discussed about the negative impact of the debt burden on the parents and students who take loans to pay for higher education because of which reducing cost of education becomes necessary. The second section tells us how this high cost is affecting parents of all classes in the society which makes minimization of higher education costs urgent. In the third section, I have thrown light upon the fact that the high cost of education has made it inaccessible to most of the undergraduates in U.S. which in turn, is creating a deficiency in the workforce of the country. I have ended the paper with the fourth section in which I have discussed how reduction of high costs of college education will make U.S. competitive in the global economy. I have concluded with the fifth section where I have uphold the point that reduction of college education cost is deemed necessary and discussed, in brief, the steps which colleges and the federal government should undertake to reduce the high cost of higher education. However, before discussing these five sections, I would like to put forward the statistical trends of the increase in cost of higher education in recent years. STATISTICAL TRENDS The tuition fees of colleges and universities have been increasing four times faster than the inflation rate (see Fig. 1). The cost of educating has soared 439% since 1982 for colleges. The average tuition and fees is around $20,000 annually at a public four year college and it is nearly $30,000- $35, 000 at a private college (Chaudhari). Moreover, it has been predicted that the cost will rise as high as $ 1, 25,000 for a public college and $ 2, 50,000 for a private college by 2015. On an average, families shell out $64 billion annually to send 13.9 million students to public colleges and universities (Immerwahr). According to Rampbell, on an average parents pay for around 37% of the total cost of attending colleges from their savings and income, around 10% of the cost is arranged through borrowing by parents and rest of the expenses are borne by the students themselves or by taking financial aids. Fig. 1 College Tuition and Fees vs. Overall Inflation Debt Burden. There have been recent debates on whether college education should be reduced or not. According to me, it should be reduced because students who study with borrowed money have to face lot of difficulty in paying it back in the long term, though there are some fortunate ones who get grants and scholarships (Chaudhari). There is great concern over the amount of debt students have to take for higher education, though some people argue that financial aids are easily available and payable for students who are willing to take loans. However, most of the people (80%) agree to the fact that the debt burden is exorbitant for graduating students and is significantly affecting their lives. According to a survey by a Berkeley, California advocacy group, the average debt of students graduating with loans has risen from $18,796 in 2006 to $ 20,098 in 2007 (Ho). Therefore, we can see that reducing college expenditure is reckoned essential. Burden for Parents. Secondly, the cost of college education has made it very difficult for parents and their children to meet the expense of higher studies. 71% of the people have stated that paying for college has become extremely difficult today as compared to 10 years ago. In addition, the recent financial downturn of the economy has hit families severely, who are now looking for substitute cheaper colleges for their children rather than private costly universities (Bodnar). We know that every parent wants to provide the best education to their children whether they belong to the elite class or to lower income groups. Though, rich families are able to cover almost half of the costs of their children’s college, families with income less than $35,000 are more dependent on grants, scholarships and their own borrowing. It is true that people from low income groups have more difficulty in arranging for college funds. However, some people argue that the middle class has the toughest time because they are too sound to get scholarships but not rich enough to pay higher education costs. Thus, we can see that parents of all classes have to struggle hard to cover their child’s college fees (Immerwahr). Reducing the amount will remove the burden of expenditure from a parent to a great extent as it has been often seen that they utilize their retirement funds in their children’s higher education thus saving nothing for their family’s long term financial health (Immerwahr; Rampbell). Inaccessibility to all students leading to deficiency in workforce. Even today, almost half the population feels that they do not have the prospect to attend colleges. Therefore, if cost of college education is reduced, more people would be able to take up higher education, thereby adding to the educated workforce of the country. However, it has been argued that there is still lack of jobs which require a college degree therefore; it is not required to create surplus of highly qualified workers by minimizing cost of higher education. Moreover, the requisite of educated workers in U.S has gone down noticeably due to outsourcing of jobs overseas. However, according to a report by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, 63% of all the occupations in U.S will necessitate some sort of postsecondary tutoring by 2018. Furthermore, if the cost of higher education is not cut, America will soon face a deficiency of 3 million educated personnel in the future (Chaudhari). Therefore, we can see that cost of higher education should be lessened. Reduction of costs will make U.S economy more competitive in the world. Lastly, it is a fact that college education makes people confident and sensible who can take matured decisions in a democratic society. This is the place where a youth gets his first taste of independence, learns socializing and most importantly, enhances his academic growth. Earlier higher education was enough for most of the workers but today almost all the high income jobs necessitate a college degree and therefore by providing it at diminished prices, U.S can make itself more assertive in the international economy (Chaudhari). CONCLUSION Thus, we can conclude that reducing the cost of higher education is cosidered necessary for plummeting the debt burden of students as well as of parents, increasing the accessibility of higher education to more children, adding to the workforce of the country and making U.S more cutthroat in the economy worldwide. Therefore, it is the duty of colleges, universities and the federal government to find ways to reduce the expenditure. Introduction of new technologies, improvement in the quality of student learning, redesigning methodology, increasing class size are some of the steps colleges can take to reduce tuition and fees. Moreover, the federal government should provide students and parents with information about rates of fees increments, about universities which are charging low prices, provide inducements to colleges to persuade them to trim down the tuition fees, and increase aid to colleges that want to lessen their tuition amount. Together with the efforts of the colleges and the government, the tuition fees can be reduced to a great extent. Therefore, we can say that reduction of college education costs is necessitated for the better future of the country and can be done through collaborated efforts. Work Cited Bodnar, Janet. “The New Realities of Paying for college”. Kiplinger. The Kiplinger Washington Editors, 5 Nov. 2008. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. Chaudhari, Sudhir. “Soaring College costs: Should college education be free for everyone?” Sunday Posts. Sunday Posts, 26 Dec. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. Gordon H. Wadsworth; “College Tuition and Fees vs. Overall Inflation”; InflationData.com; Capital Professional Services, 19 Oct. 2011; Web; 22 Mar. 2011. Ho, Catherine. “Paying off college tuition has a higher degree of difficulty now”. Lubbock Online. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 16 Nov. 2008. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. Immerwahr, John. “Great Expectations”. Reports & Papers. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2000. Web. 20 Mar. 2012. Rampbell, Catherine. “How Americans pay for college?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Mar. 2011. Read More