By Raelynn Harris
In America, the amount of money students spend on college is a topic of debate. If colleges and universities cut costs, in addition to being free for the first two years, then improvement will likely be seen in America. A lot of changes would need to be made such as cutting down costs on textbooks and other school supplies, clubs, and other school organization activities, but the benefits would positively affect the new generations.
Student loan debt is now the second-highest consumer debt category after mortgages. The amount of money spent on tuition and student loans has steadily increased from 2011 to the present year of 2022. According to Education Data, the average cost of college in the United States is $35,551 per student, per year; that includes books, supplies, and living expenses. Most of a student’s educational expenses are tuition and fees to attend college. A final shocking fact: the average cost of college has an annual, or yearly growth rate of 7.1 percent.
The cost of tuition has increased over 40 years including after adjusting for inflation. Between the years of 2010-11 and 2020-21, before adjusting for inflation, the average tuition cost at 2-year colleges increased 11.4 percent, 30.9 percent at public 4-year institutions, and 41.3 percent at private, nonprofit 4-year institutions. The cost of tuition leads to student loans, which, according to Education Data, totals $1.745 trillion and the federal loan balance is 1.617 trillion.
Student Loan Debt (Quarterly)
| Quarter | Total | Year-over-Year (YoY) Change |
| 2022 Q2 | $1,745,369,310,000 | 1.53% |
| 2022 Q1 | $1,747,455,510,000 | 1.67% |
| 2021 Q4 | $1,733,415,180,000 | 2.34% |
| 2021 Q3 | $1,739,443,830,000 | 2.53% |
| 2021 Q2 | $1,719,067,550,000 | 2.78% |
| 2021 Q1 | $1,718,706,550,000 | 2.80% |
| 2020 Q4 | $1,693,860,250,000 | 3.42% |
| 2020 Q3 | $1,696,474,620,000 | 3.75% |
| 2020 Q2 | $1,672,503,130,000 | 4.32% |
| 2020 Q1 | $1,671,968,780,000 | 4.65% |
The average college student graduates college with a student loan debt of about $14,000. Although 47 percent of the students default on their loans, 53 percent cannot make the loan repayments as per the legal terms. This leads to the stress of debt hanging over past students while entering the workforce.
In college, funding takes over everything in a student’s life, and according to University of the People, the most common reason for students to drop out of college is due to financial struggles. Think Impact’s statistics agree with this information: it’s stated that 55 percent of college students struggle to have financial support and stability for their studies. This leads to 51 percent of college students dropping out because of their lack of money. Not being able to attend multiple years of college because of high finances and financial shortcomings ends in 38 percent of students dropping out. High finances are also a reason for late graduation, 79 percent of students have to delay their graduation because of financial difficulties.
When asked about his opinions regarding if colleges should be free, Mekhi Wright ‘23 said, “Some colleges cost a lot to just be there, for some people, their dream colleges are Ivy Leagues, and for Connecticut, UCONN. Getting into college is hard, especially if they don’t use aid to pay for their college.”
A first two free years of college followed by cut costs of tuition can lead to benefits for Americans. Positive benefits in our economy, including a rising number of people that are unemployed, will likely follow.
The Raider Press 