My frustration is why did it take so long? Why weren't we able to find these same dollars under "What about Bob" Taft's tenure? My fourth grade son could look at the rising tuition rates compared with the number of students leaving Ohio for less-expensive college classes and suggest that a rate freeze was in order. Why couldn't the education Governor and a state legislature paid to find solutions do the same math?
Don't get me wrong here. I love the idea of the freeze, but couldn't it have come a few years ago before the tuition rates got this out of hand? As it is, a city-born high school grad can expect to invest 40-50K for a four-year degree at Akron or Kent, including books and living expenses. Even living at home with mom and dad will require 35-40K. Did we really have to let it get this far out of hand before someone came up with a plan? The old idea of a high school grad getting a summer job to pay for half of college (with parents paying the other half) is now a daydream at best .. and the idea of student loans creates such debt that even those Akron-area students who graduate in four years will have a long period of indentured servitude before they can really begin to make their mark in life. Has anyone seen the high default rate on student loans?
Luring and keeping jobs is another obstacle altogether, but making high education affordable is a simple mathematical problem: What's the cost to provide it minus How much do we already have equals how much we charge our students. The state universities certainly haven't hid these figures, but it's taken so long for our state leaders to finally understand the equation that our students will be paying long after this freeze begins to thaw.
4 comments:
Good education is definitely expensive and student loans are a great help. I used Next Student for my college loans which gave me a great bargain and helped me pay off all my college debt.
Could the above post be a MORE obvious ad for this particular service. Ugh . . .
Too bad the schools are going around the TUITION freeze and are raising the room and board/meal rates to make up for it. There always a loophole for them to find !!
Although the University of Akron did not raise tuition, fees are out of this world. I have a wife and two sons attending this fall, so I get to pay $1,000 a semester for a gym that no one will have time to use.
Still trying to understand how our family can have three people attending and we don't get a penny of financial aid.
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