America has one of the highest rates of enrollment for post-secondary education in the world, yet these rates are decreasing due to the increasing cost of attending. According to the U.S. Department of Education, by the year 2020 two-thirds of projected job openings will require a bachelor’s degree at minimum. However, from the baby boomer generation to the millennial generation, attending college has drastically changed, creating racial, class, and opportunity gaps that are becoming impossible to evade.

The U.S. Department of Education has stated that within the last 30 years the cost of attending college has skyrocketed 200 percent. Yet all the while, federal funds per capita are decreasing, leaving more of the financial burden on families. The impact of the lack of funding and increasing prices are felt not only on a community level, but are expected to affect the nation as a whole. If higher education becomes a privilege determined by income rather than a right regardless of financial standing, the average level of education Americans receive will plummet. In the age of technological revolution, our nation cannot afford to fall behind in education.

While attending college is still a reality for many, the gap we are creating in our overall population is growing. Only financially stable, creditworthy parents are able to send their children off to college directly after high school. Not much time has passed since the the millennial generation's parents were in college, so what has really changed? How much could the increased cost be affecting this generation? And why should we change it now?

Firstly, attending college is becoming a commodity rather than an expectation.

The supply-and-demand nature of our consumerist economy has turned many colleges (but not all) into profit-hungry businesses, rather than institutes that solely encourage students to question and investigate the world around them. The rapidly rising costs prove to be very problematic, particularly for the middle class. Financial aid is given on a need-based as well as a first come, first serve basis. Therefore the lower class typically gets more money to pay for college, the upper class is able to sustain itself, and the middle class is stuck somewhere in between. Statistically, the middle and lower classes are comprised of minorities and families struggling to recover from our economic recession. Limiting them from receiving an education is creating not only a racial gap but is furthering the class gap that is already felt. As a country that prides itself on the diversity of its citizens, creating gaps between minorities and the predominantly white upper class is an inexcusable hypocrisy.

Secondly, FAFSA.

Every college student knows the joy of filling out the FAFSA. For those who have not had the pleasure of this experience, the FAFSA is the government’s financial aid calculator. The government expects that the family will assume responsibility for educational costs, regardless of whether or not the parents will be supporting the student financially. Using some unknown algorithm, family tax information, and some form of voodoo, students attending college are given an amount that the family is expected to contribute. However, for students who are expected to take care of their educational costs, it is ridiculous to have their financial aid award based on parents’ income. Moreover, the FAFSA calculator does an extremely poor job at taking into consideration extenuating circumstances. With divorce rates being through the roof in recent years, “unusual” family circumstances are at an all-time high. Another stipulation the FAFSA covers in great deal is dependency status. Students are deemed dependent even if their parents refuse to provide information to properly file the FAFSA, or if the parents will not support the child financially. If a student is ALREADY financially independent of the parents, the parental information is required. This is the case until the student is 24 years of age or in graduate school, or in very extreme cases that are not fully outlined in the FAFSA rules. If a student falls into any of these special circumstances, the aid they receive will be decreased drastically, or not awarded at all. Examples of extenuating circumstances FAFSA poorly accounts for include: filing an extension to complete your taxes, tax situations that involve divorced/remarried parents, student dependency, and lack of communication with parents for lawful reasons.

Finally, the increasing costs of education are leaving our college graduates in high amounts of debt, from a bachelor’s degree alone.

If students wish to pursue a specialty degree, many are left with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. This leaves recent graduates with limited opportunities for housing or fiscal stability to start a family. This only escalates as the increased average amount of debt prevents graduates from saving money for their children to attend college. Mind you, not every person in the United States gets to have a high-paying career in order to provide their children with all the essentials and save money for their education.

These issues affect all families with college students, but the disappearing middle class families are targeted especially.

Often families that make an average of $80-100,000 a year are not awarded large amounts from FAFSA. However, with college costs averaging around $50,000 a year, how are those families expected to give up half of their income for a student to attend college? What if they have more than one child in college? This is where the “Too Poor for College, Too Rich for Financial Aid” debate really gains speed. If middle-class families are unable to pay for college, the chances of them getting a stable, well-paying career are limited. This will cause the lower class to grow substantially. However, as aforementioned, financial aid is targeted to lower-class students. If those families all apply for financial aid as the government is lowering the funding they provide for college costs, there will be a further lack of educational funding per capita creating a vicious cycle of lower-class growth and lack of education.

In recent times, many Americans have been examining how many European countries are able to sustain free college (more commonly known as debt-free college). Many European colleges are free or nearly free for students, however, these countries typically have lower enrollment than American institutions, and citizens are taxed more heavily. Furthermore, their secondary education is far more advanced and in depth than in America. Consequentially, these countries excel without all of their students attending college. So now it is time to ask ourselves: What can we do to change our system before it’s too late?

Looking at the future of our country, is it reasonable for so many students to be unable to attend college?

Colleges should not be targeted as a business to make profit from. Plus, I am sure educated workers would make more profit for big businesses than uneducated workers. The technology developed is becoming more advanced by the day, yet we will not have educated students to be able to learn how to operate, maintain, and further develop technology. Our population will decrease to average education levels, and we will fall behind in education. America has prided itself on its sense of exceptionalism. In order to continue on as a leader in education, receiving an education beyond high school is imperative. Mind you, there are other options to attending a typical four-year college (serving in the military, attending a technical college, transferring into a four-year college after receiving an associate's degree at a community college, to name a few), but these are not always viable options for students. In order to sustain our nation, advance our technologies, better our economy, and better our citizens, we need to make education available to everyone, regardless of class, race, or age. It’s time to change.