Student debt. Why isn't college free?
Biden's debt forgiveness is better than nothing, I suppose.
All my drawings and paintings can be found on Instagram @klonskyart
President Biden finally got around to making a decision on student debt.
It was the least he could do in the face of what is a crushing debt on working class college students and a barrier to higher education for many others.
Biden took action that was the very least he could do, short of doing nothing.
According to a Department of Education analysis, the typical undergraduate student with loans now graduates with nearly $25,000 in debt. The skyrocketing cumulative federal student loan debt—$1.6 trillion and rising for more than 45 million borrowers—is a significant burden on America's working families.
This was not the way it always was.
When I graduated high school in Los Angeles in the sixties, higher education in California was free. We had choices of two year junior colleges, state colleges and the prestigious University of California.
Basically tuition free.
Few of my high school classmates even considered leaving California for college.
But now.
At UCLA, the total cost is $35,323 for in-state students and $65,077 for out-of-state students.
Of course, that’s the sticker price. It can vary from student to student and program to program and the availability of student aid.
Still the idea of a free college education is no more.
In California it ended with the rise of student protest, Ronald Reagan and affirmative action.
Reagan’s rise from B-movie actor to California governor was in part based on a campaign that promised to punish students for protesting racism and the war in Vietnam.
And affirmative action, which provided the promise to open higher education to Black and Brown students provided more ammunition to end free tuition.
Remember that for many countries in the industrialized world free tuition is common place. The concept of student debt is unheard of.
Free college is considered part of the common good, like K-12 education, public transportation and libraries.
The cost of an educated population is shared by all whether one personally has child in school, rides a bus or borrows a book.
Education is a public good - and the idea that it should end at an arbitrary age would be silly, if it were not actual US policy. And of course education should be public and free.
The idea that school is mandatory and free for 15 year olds, but optional and depressingly expensive for 19 year olds and ridiculous and offensive.
Hey, I think that naval officer should get some free writing courses. Never too old. Education should be looked at as part of the fabric of society.
Jonathan
As a retired US Naval Officer, I candidly am ashamed and insulted by Biden's debt 'forgiveness.' All he did was push more staggering national debt onto citizens already abused by politicians with short term goals and reelection vice protecting the economic and financial life of our country. Mr. Klonsky's comments are based on opinion vice informed opinion. I went back to graduate school as a 43 year-old grad student, and I state that many of the college students were wasting federal and parental money for a useless degree. Until our educational system is overhauled to teach critical thinking vice PC, woke, and other nonsense, the 'cost of an educated population' is NOT (fairly) shared by all. Finally, comparing our country to other countries in the 'industrialized world' in regards to free tuition is equally opinion vice informed opinion. (I am tired of people telling me I have a financial or moral obligation to help raise their children. Over eighteen years on active duty means that if you want me to financially help raise your children, then I have the right to input what they study.)