The Cost of Higher Education

James Bogenschutz

Eng 102

Dr. Parker

June 16, 2015

Education in the United States

“…public funding for higher education was slashed. These radical cuts forced universities to raise tuition year after year, which in turn forced the millennial generation to take on crushing educational debt loads…” (Campos). It is interesting to see educational costs in the United States, it is also interesting to see why people would rather not continue on to higher education due to the cost. The United States has made attempts to promote higher education, and has funded and helped out people pay for educational costs. For example, “The 1914 Smith-Lever Act expanded the mission of land grant universities to include agricultural extension services and the 1917 Smith-Hughes Act extended dollar-for-dollar federal matching funds for state and local vocational education programs” (Babones 580). According to the article, Austerity Economics and the Threat to Human Infrastructure in reference to government efforts to promote higher education by Salvatore Babones, “None of these efforts were about research or the advancement of knowledge; they were fundamentally about human and workforce development” (Babones 580). With this being said, we can see the reasons that the government has to fund education. But if the purpose is workforce development, then why are education costs so high? If you see this through a bureaucratic point of view, it could be to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. Because it is those who can afford a higher education who are pursuing it. The government does provide federal student aid for those who are willing to get higher education, but unfortunately, federal student aid only covers a small percentage of the costs to attend universities. I am not saying that the government should give us the money to attend school and better ourselves, but there definitely should be more restrictions on the prices that universities have to charge. Tuition rates are outrageous and those who do not qualify for some scholarships are left paying a lot of money out of pocket. My cousin is attending a private university, she knows that she has to pay extra for this, but the prices are ridiculously high. There should be more government regulations on how much universities charge for tuition because prices are too high, this would help people pursue higher education, and this could lead to people having a better quality of life in the long run.

Work Cited

Babones, Salvatore. "Austerity Economics And The Threat To Human Infrastructure." Peace Review 25.4 (2013): 576-583. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 June 2015.

Campos, Paul. “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much.” The New York Times.. 4 April. 2015. Web. 16 June 2015.