By one estimate, the cost of four-year public college tuition has tripled since the 1980s, outpacing both inflation and family income. (NY Times) This alone makes it impossible for the average student to attend a 4 year institution to attain a degree to better their life. Think of the number of families that are living at or below the poverty level, now sending their child to college becomes an additional burden that they cannot bear. The increase in the tuition burden is largely caused by declining state support for higher education in the past three decades. In both good times and bad, state governments have pushed more of the costs onto students, forcing many to take out big loans or be priced out of once affordable public colleges at a time when a college education is critical in the new economy.
There was a big number of unemployment among black teenagers, because discrimination was still a significant factor. The unemployment rate for black people who had attended college, was 27.2% and those who had graduated from high school was 23.6%. It was higher than the unemployment rate for white high school dropouts, which was 22.3%. It was obvious that the black students were being discriminated, because the white students that didn’t t even finished high school were getting more jobs opportunities than blacks. With the Affirmative Action program there was a dramatic increase in college attendance among blacks, yet there was still an astounding amount of unemployed blacks.
Student Loan Debt Recently, the issue of student loans and the debt often accumulated through the utilization of those loans has come to the forefront. Student loans have become an indispensible means by which families are able to pay for higher education. The cost to attend institutions of higher education has soared over the last decade. In fact, the cost to attend college can amount to more than $50,000 per year at some private colleges and universities. Now that Americans owe more on student loans than on credit cards, the issue of spiraling student debt has moved increasingly higher on the political agenda.
CQ Researcher, 2 1001-1024. This article is about paying for college. A college degree is considered especially vital to success. But for more than a decade the cost of higher education has been growing at almost twice the rate of inflation. And with the economic conditions threatening jobs security across the country, parents and prospective students alike are questioned whether they can afford colleges or not.
There are many colleges and universities that have tried to improve their graduation rates and have succeeded in doing so (Davis, 2010). Graduation rate of any country is a reflection of far more than what may seem. The number of college students graduating from a college shows an insight to its accountability and transparency. The graduation rates show a great deal about the college itself and a low number of graduating students may indicate an unsatisfactory performance by the college or it may point towards something faulty within the organization (Sealey-Morris, 2015). The constant increment in the wage given to the students in order to increase the college graduation rate has been unsuccessful in tackling the situation and the increased amount of students enrolled in college courses are not directly proportional to the amount of students graduating from these colleges.
According to Trends in College Spending, a study done by the delta cost project, "Enrollment in U.S. postsecondary institutions totaled almost 18.6 million students in the 2008 academic year, a nearly 26 percent increase over the ten-year period beginning in 1998." The increase in demand for a college education has directly influenced college costs. It's simple economics, when demand goes up the price of the product being demanded will increase. The power lies on the side of the universities to determine whether their prices will rise or fall. Schools know that the quickest way to an elightened future is through their doors.
Normandale Community College is planning to increase its parking space by 724 parking spots. According to the article, Normandale College has received the “approval of the Bloomington Planning commission to construct a 724-space, on campus ramp… a 76,000-square-foot Academic Partnership, which is to be connected to the existing Kopp Student Center” (Startribune). This is due to the fact that the enrollment of students at Normandale Community College has increased 10% since last year. Normandale is using the tactic of ‘education comes first’, without enough parking spaces students would have trouble getting to school on time and would also get students frustrated. Also, students have been complaining to Normandale Administrators to handle the parking situation and make it easier for them to find a parking lot.
While many people in the United States look for higher education after high school, financial barriers are in the way for a lot of these students due to rising college tuition costs. Although these high prices are seen as a negative by most, arguments have been made that they may actually be a good thing. Some say the higher price tag forces (potential) students to not take their education for granted. The opposing side responds with statements saying a lot of people aren’t given a chance and these prices are to far out of their reach. The bottom line is that the high and rising cost of college isn’t a good thing and reduces the amount of qualified workers.
Plans to Eliminate College Binge Drinking Nearly half of today’s college student population is stumbling through the college years due to binge drinking. Binge drinking on college campuses isn’t just an issue of public health, but it’s one of self-interest. Failure to act in the face of foreseeable harm places schools at risk for damaging their academic reputations and liability lawsuits in millions of dollars. Also, students experience a wide variety of alcohol related problems including hangovers, blackouts, and engaging in unplanned sexual activity. According to Lini Kadaba’s article, Colleges Hitting the Bottle Binge Drinking Remains High, but Initiatives at Area Schools Raising Awareness, “College binge drinking is remaining in colleges due to the intractable problems that contribute to 1,700 student deaths, 599,000 injuries, and 97,000 cases of sexual assault, or date rapes.” (24).
"The State's university system, once the envy of the nation, has fallen in quality combined with increased demands for admission by an ever-growing number of applicants," says the CAPS report. In the schools, from kindergarten through twelfth grade, enrollments rose from 4.8 million in 1990-91 to almost 6 million ten years later. By 2000, "there were more Hispanics than other children enrolled in the State's schools." California is currently spending $6,837 per student, "so more than $16 billion was spent last year on students whose native language was other than English." California has been so mismanaged by its governors and legislature that it is billions in debt.