The Blue & White

by Lea Saab

In my opinion, for a high school senior, there is nothing more anxiety-driven than the thought of what colleges to apply to and what major you’d like to study.

There’s always been a stressful feeling around the subject but I’d argue that the anxiety surrounding college is at its highest peak due to the extreme expense that comes along with the studies.

According to research from Melanie Hanson, from the Education Data Initiative, the balance for overall federal loans is $1.617 trillion, with 92.7% being college students/debt. The biggest question everyone asks themselves is, why? If there are so many young adults entering college, why must we pay so much?

For a while, I thought it was due to the selfishness of colleges, but after researching more about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s more the government’s fault rather than the colleges themselves.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Overall state funding for public two- and four-year colleges in the school year ending in 2018 was more than $6.6 billion below what it was in 2008 just before the Great Recession fully took hold, after adjusting for inflation.”

This restriction of funding has caused expensive tuition and less academic opportunities. In conclusion, the government is giving young adult shovels to dig themselves a hole in student debt so they could spend the rest of their lives trying to pay it off.