Economic Crisis Affecting Educational Opportunities?

by: Kevin Brawley

In the current economic situation, individual businesses and corporations are taking the brunt of the force of the downfall. Just like any business, higher education is taking a real hit. Universities are having to raise their prices to stay afloat, and students were already having to pay large amounts of money to study at these universities. According to Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed, public institutions are having to increase their prices the most because of cuts in the state budgets. When paying for college, a majority of what students have to pay besides the tuition is the room and board. For public schools, this price went up 5.4% to $8,193. For private schools, this price went up 4.2% to $9,363.

With these shifts in academic costs, student financial aid has decreased therefore paying for college has become more difficult. Students at private universities receive on average $14,400 in total grant aid, lowering their net tuition cost to about $11,900. In-state students at public four-year universities receive around $5,400, making the net tuition to about $1,600. However, the majority of students attend public and community colleges. These schools are experiencing a larger increase from last year to this year than from two years ago to last year in the total cost of tuition and fees. Private colleges have managed to slightly reduce the increase in cost between the two times, but the fact is, the costs are still increasing from year to year. At this rate (assume a yearly increase of 5%), students could be paying twice what they pay now in just fifteen years. And this is not even counting the many other unexpected costs associated with attending college (books, activity fees, supplies, etc.).

All in all, college is becoming more expensive when students and their families are facing difficult economic times and the job market is also suffering (making it difficult to pay off those massive student loans). Education should be an institution that works to relieve the economic problem, not add to it.