The ongoing global recession has put many a student in great debt. This problem has grown to great proportions with the topic finding place in various reports and conferences. Many advocacy groups have sprung recently to help students deal with the situation. Not to mention, politicians are having a field day discussing this issue in their meetings.
Outer reactions apart, a federal survey data released recently in Washington shows that there is a definite positive growth in student borrowing. In fact, borrowing has intensified the past few years. Students are not deterred by the situation as they reach out even for expensive loans in order to meet their escalating higher education expenses.
According to analysts, students today are forced to reach out to private lenders for educational loans due to the fact that colleges and universities have steeply hiked up fee structures and government regulated and subsidized loans are taken away from the lower income bracket students who really need the loan towards those who are not actually dependent on it.
While it is a commendable move by the Obama administration proposing some major loan program changes which make loans and federal grant aid available to many, it does not address the root cause of the problem namely a phenomenal rise in tuition costs. Analysts feel that unless some drastic measures are taken by the Federal and State Government fast, college debt will rise to an unimaginable extent.
There are others who disagree with such reports stating that these reports scare the hell out of students in the lower income bracket, giving them a feeling that anyone who wishes to continue higher education has to borrow at least $35,000, which is definitely not the case.
Reality remains that the last decade has seen a positive doubling of student borrowing which is definitely an alarming situation. Illogical though it may sound students from affluent families get more in the form of grants from colleges as compared to those from the lower income bracket. According to the Centre, a nonpartisan organization’s president, Patrick M. Callan, if things continue this way for the next twenty five years or so, the system of higher education in the country will be practically inaccessible to most.
A report from National Centre for Public Policy and Higher Education also warns of higher education going beyond reach of average Americans the way cost of college education is rising.
Now, it is the middle class students who enrol in colleges with huge amount of debts. The low income students have no choice but to compromise. The strain is clear on them as according to survey, the average cost of public education is 28 percent of a median family income and that of a private college is 76 percent of the median family income.
The poorest families are the worst hit. Their net cost at a public university which was 55% of their median income in 1999-2000 has risen by 39% last year. And the fees is again all set to rise next year. As of now, Florida is set to increase its fees by 15%, Washington State by 20% and California is set to introduce a host of enrolment and budget cuts.
In a separate report released this week by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the public universities acknowledged the looming crisis, but painted a different picture. Community colleges offer relief to many with their fees averaging $3200 as compared to a whopping $33,000 or more in private universities.
An immediate drastic action is required to tackle this situation and continue providing quality education to students