A few weeks ago I wrote a pretty heated Facebook post about why free in-state college tuition is viable and not to just brush it away as "wanting free handouts" which got 97 shares. Yeah, wow. Obviously, this is a subject that is important to our generation. Embedded is my Facebook post:
Hi, this is just your average "greedy and lazy" millennial hear to talk to you about college tuition and how it is way more expensive than when you went to school.
Tuition for 12-18 credits hours at Ball State (an in state and public school) for 2016-2017 school year will be $7,698. That's not including the $1,294 student service fee, $336 campus technology fee, $174 rec center fee, and $152 health center fee. All of which you HAVE to pay. No choice. Even the thriftiest college student will have to spend at least $200 on books (normally a lot more, though, average probably $350-400).
Now let's factor in living expenses. If you chose to live on campus (which is honestly a great experience that gives you independence skills and statistically improves your grades) that's $8,715 (and that's the cheapest housing like Lafollette) with a technology fee of $120. And if you don't live on campus a student still needs a place to live and rent is on average about $350 a month. Now maybe you live with your parents and they are providing you housing. Awesome! You've saved a lot but there's still probably $300 worth of gas and traveling fees to and from school a year depending on how far you live. Oh, and those rec center and health center fees? You still gotta pay them even if you aren't using them.
How do you expect for people to be able to afford college? I worked 40 hours a week at my summer job and work 20 hours a week at school and only made about $4,000 in 2015. The bare minimum that the federal can give a student going into their freshman year is $5,500 which most middle-class students get. The government expects families to be able to fork out the rest. Now, what if a family doesn't have the means? I mean $13,000 will be about a fourth of my income as a beginning teacher that's not just laying around. Private loans with a 12.6 percent interest rate? What if that student doesn't have a consigner? Then what? Because no private loan company will let you take out a loan without a cosigner.
Okay, so the kid decides to wait to go to school and try to save up some money. What if that kid gets kicked out at 18? How do you expect them to save money and pay for insurance, medical, gas, food, rent, etc only making $7.25 an hour? Go to school and get an education so they can make more?
Oh, wait.
We don't want handouts. We want people to recognize that college can't be paid for with a summer job anymore.
There are some brilliant minds out there not able to expand because of how expensive college is. And it would cost the average person $30 of taxes a year to get the brilliant mind an education.
So, why did I write this? Why was it so important to me? Why was it relatable enough for my peers to share it so much? We want to succeed. We want to watch others succeed. Our families want us to succeed. There's only so much that, "working hard with a summer job" can do in the 21st century.
We're not asking you to pay for funsies. We don't want our beer and pizza money covered. We want to focus on our careers and education without worrying how we're going to cover the $300 on our E-Bill.
