The Cost Of Educating The Next Generation

6 Pages 1620 Words

We live in a society where a college degree has become the single most important determinant of a young person’s chances of success. Yet with rising college tuition costs showing no signs of slowing down, it is increasingly difficult for low income students to achieve their higher education goals. A college education is viewed as the ticket to prosperity, a way to rise up out of poverty and live a wealthy life. “After all, education is the great equalizer in our nation. It can bridge social, economic, racial, and geographic divides like no other force. It can mean the difference between an open door and a dead end. And nowhere is this truer than in higher education” (Boehner). However, the rising cost of college tuition hinders lower income families from sending their children to college. With success being more directly linked than ever to knowledge, a college degree is of immeasurable importance. By these poorer students not being able to attend college, a cap is being put on the intergenerational progress of low income families.
Cost factors prevent forty eight percent of college-qualified high school graduates from attending a four-year institution, and twenty two percent from attending any college at all. At this rate, by the end of the decade, more than two million college-qualified students will be completely denied the opportunity for a postsecondary education

(Boehner). We are facing a crisis in the higher education system. As America grows even more into a knowledge economy, many students are facing fees that they and their families are unable to pay. Students are having to either give up their dream of a college degree, or “trade down” to a more affordable means of postsecondary education. Even more, now a basic education has expanded to include six additional years. This means that the public portion of a basic education has shrunk from covering one hundred percent of k-12 in the early 1970’s to t...