In several weeks many students will head to Wayne State University for their first year or maybe their last year of school. But the problem won’t be navigating through campus or surviving college classes. Instead, the problem will be having enough money to pay for it.
Michigan is in dire straits right now with bankruptcies, rumors of more bankruptcies looming, lay-offs, plant closings, state and local budget deficits and not to mention a U.S. economy that is recovering at the speed of a turtle.
What will so many students do to pay for college? Oh! I know. They will go out and get a job to help pay for school. Hmm! Only one thing wrong with that suggestion … there are no jobs.
Of course, unless you have been on Mars the last two years and missed this state slip into a recession, most people know that Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 14 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. So, if no one is really working, then how can they pay for school?
Here is the dilemma: With drastic state cuts in funding, their proposed solution is to raise tuition on students, who are already struggling to pay the current tuition. The unbelievable amount of loans that students are taking out are enough to have them paying for college 10-15 years after graduating.
Most of the time, it’s the underprivileged and poor college students that have no family financial help who suffer the most. How in the world are students suppose to concentrate on passing classes when the class that they are sitting in isn’t even paid for?
Students are encouraged in high school to graduate and go to college so that they can make something of themselves.
But how can you be equipped with the necessary knowledge to succeed in this life, if you can’t even afford the equipment needed to be successful?
More and more students are attending community college for two years, and then transferring to a university after getting their associates because they can’t afford to pay the high rates of tuition.
Something has got to be done about the problem of tuition increase. Retention has got be a big problem when students are being flooded with these high costs.
Wayne States tuition has grown by double-digits since 1999. In 1999, the tuition for an undergraduate was 3,708 dollars, and 10 years later tuition is 6,556 dollars, not including housing.
It is time for people, for students, to stand up to the state appropriations and university officials and demand that this change. Otherwise, the student population at Wayne State will continue to decrease. Make education affordable, or watch the population drop.
