Over the past 10 years, as the necessity of attending college and securing a degree has increased, so have the costs.
The College Board's Trends in College Pricing study showed that, as states have cut back on education spending, the cost of college has increased 40 percent during the last decade.
The estimated 2003 budget for the Department of Education, according to the Budget of the U.S. Government, is more than $50 billion, but that's not enough. Tuition costs are increasing at a high rate, so many students will feel the tightened pursestrings of a government already spread thin by efforts to regenerate economic vitality, the war on terrorism and homeland defense.
The government must find a way to compensate and re-allocate funds from several departments to ensure students (present and future) receive adequate financial aid, and students should demand that officials do so.
The 2003 budget discrepancies have created "a very difficult period in financing higher education," according to David Ward, the president of the American Council on Education, but the government has still managed to award students significant aid. According to an Associated Press report, $40 billion were distributed to college students in 2002-2003 in state and federal grants, none of which has to be repaid.
But, as indicated by the College Board's report, the tuition costs we are paying will continue to rise. In all likelihood, they will continue to rise as we send our children to college.
We need to push our state officials listed at the bottom of this page to push our national officials to ensure the Department of Education can cover all students. Unless the Bush administration has a major shift in budgetary thinking, $40 billion will soon be too inappropriate to help enough of the deserving students across the country.
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