My fellow classmate, Megan Harlow wrote an interesting blog on the current tuition raises in Texas. She states that "due to the bad economy in the past years and harsh budget cuts, Texas Universities and Universities around the United States are raising their tuition rates up to 20% a year." This issue concerns a lot of parents and students who cannot afford to send their young adults to a University. An alternative to attending a University, numerous students attend community colleges, Jr. Colleges, join the military or they just work right out of high school until they can afford to take classes.
The sad part about raising tuition is that for those who cannot afford to attend college most likely will not be able to find a good job because it is nearly impossible to get a great job with benefits without a college degree. On the other hand, it is said that someone who graduates from a University has a better chance getting a job than someone who graduates from a community college. This is a sore subject for me because I will probably be one of those students. My family is not poor but I am not about to expect my parents to fork up a bunch of money for a University when I can take the classes at ACC. It is really quite upsetting that people look down upon those who graduate from community colleges. Is it their fault they could not afford to to go a University? I don't think so.
Megan suggests that we can avoid this by "teaching their children at a young age and cross their fingers and hope for their child to receive a full ride." I agree with her because really, the only way to go to a University is to get a full ride scholarship. She also makes a good point when she talks about bank accounts decreasing due to so many loans being given out to pay for tuition. If the only way we can go to school is by taking out loans, then the banks will soon run out of money which will result in no loans being awarded and students not being able to attend college. ACC has actually already changed their financial aid application and put restrictions on it to prevent just anyone from getting a loan.
I am not really sure what the government can do to fix this tuition crisis but they need to do something fast. I also think that employers need to change their standards when it goes to applications. Who is to say that someone who graduates from a community college can't do whatever a University student does? It makes me so mad because you pretty much learn the same things, the only difference is that it says "University" rather than "Community College" on your diploma. We have enough to worry about with the budget crisis, why do they want us students to suffer from tuition raises too?
Megan wrote a very nice article on this issue and I agree with her argument: "Texas is hurting from money but soon so will many prospective students." It is a chain effect, if students can't go to school, they can't get a good job, if employers hire only college graduates, they will not have many employees. I do agree that employers should hire college graduates because they do have more experience and education. I am just thinking about hospitals...If they have two application...one saying they graduated from UT and one saying they graduated from ACC, they will most likely chose the applicant from UT. All I'm saying is that I think it is wrong to choose someone based on the school. Both applicants have to take the nursing exam, I don't see the point.
