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Today seems like a good day to relate a conversation with a friend I once had who was getting an MA in higher education.
I asked her WHY college was so heinously expensive for us, but not our parents. Something like 200% more expensive. That's not normal inflation by any stretch
I asked her WHY college was so heinously expensive for us, but not our parents. Something like 200% more expensive. That's not normal inflation by any stretch
Her explanation was basically this- when our parents (baby boomers) were in college, colleges of all kinds were heavily subsidised by the government. This wasn't really visible to the students, as the money went right from the govt to the schools. They just reaped the bennefits.
* benefits
But during the 80s, that support got scaled back, & back & back, and the narrative that college was the responsibility of the student got stronger. A narrative pushed by people whose own schooling had been subsidized on their behalf, without having to even ASK for the "handout".
This just so happened, totally by coincidence, I'm sure, to happen right about when much greater numbers of women and POC were entering colleges.
Suddenly, what had been a public good became unreasonable charity.
Suddenly, what had been a public good became unreasonable charity.
If students wanted to get an education and advance in careers they had to "earn" it.
But without state assistance, colleges are not all that profitable unless they are ungodly expensive. Too expensive, in fact, for "working your way through college" to be anything but laughable.
But without state assistance, colleges are not all that profitable unless they are ungodly expensive. Too expensive, in fact, for "working your way through college" to be anything but laughable.
Meanwhile, non-college jobs continue to dwindle, and the minimum wage becomes a wage you can not possibly live on. So more and more people flock to the only thing that seems sensible. Shouldering the massive debt once managed by tax payers, together, for the collective good.
This conversation took place over 10 years ago, when I was in graduate school. The numbers now have only grown more bleak- impacting homeownership, new company start ups, and everything else that requires professionals with careers to actually have spending money.
I have been paying my loans off for 10 years. I've barely made a dent. My interest rate is criminal. What was I supposed to do, negotiate for it to be lowered?
I have less debt than many I know, and am very fortunate. Income based repayment helped, but with this interest rate, it's kind of a trap.
I spent much of my career in low paid, difficult nonprofit jobs that the community NEEDS to have done.
I spent much of my career in low paid, difficult nonprofit jobs that the community NEEDS to have done.
I was promised that if I worked these jobs, after a certain time, my debt would be forgiven. A thank you for the fact I was earning jack shit doing hard, thankless work for shit wages, because our infrastructure is also underfunded.
This program's never paid out for me or anyone I know. They paid less than 1% of applicants in TOTAL.
It's time for the US to make good on the promises it sold us, & act like a country that actually cares about education, economy or the future.
It's time for the US to make good on the promises it sold us, & act like a country that actually cares about education, economy or the future.
And anyone who went to college in the bloody 80s can suck eggs if they wanna bitch to me about how they paid their dues. No. They didn't. The government did, and it's time for them to stop pulling the ladders up behind them.
Don't tell me the richest nation in the history of the world can't afford to do what the rest of the developed world already does, and what we ourselves used to do, within living history.
If we want to have new nurses, new doctors, new therapists and teachers and scientists, then we need to make the rout to those positions possible without drowning people in debt.
Last thought- even if I was a selfish shit who also managed not to have any debt- I do NOT want to even think about what college would cost at the current rising rate when my daughter comes of age.
And to be totally brutal- we’re heading into a doctor and nurse shortage.
And to be totally brutal- we’re heading into a doctor and nurse shortage.
If we need people to do a job, we need to make it not a shit stupid idea for someone to pursue the job.
Would you take in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to go into medicine today?
Would you take in hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to go into medicine today?
