College Costs and the Shrinking Middle Class

The middle class over the past fifty years has become the primary tax base for the United States, paying over fifty percent of the taxes collected. In the 1940s and 50s, corporations and the very rich paid substantial taxes as well, but tax rates have shrunk for them even as overall costs for the country have risen.  Our country was once the envy of the world for it's strong middle class. But the middle class, from carrying the burden too long while jobs and benefits have been cut and disappeared, is now reaching the breaking point.

Add to the fact that the middle class is carrying more and more of the tax burden, the fact that over the last 40+ years, the middle class has steadily shrunk. In 1970, 62% of households comprised the middle class. Today, that number is just 43%. It's easy to see why this is problematic. Most people agree that the middle class needs to be regrown and it will also help if we have far less people requiring government assistance.  If current trends continue, it spells potential disaster for our country. Something needs to change, and quickly.

Historically, attaining the American dream of breaking into the middle or upper class meant getting an education. But that has become difficult as well due to rising college costs. College costs have increased far faster and higher than even healthcare. College costs from 2003 through 2013 rose 79.5%  Contrast that with medical care which also rose substantially, but still only at a rate of 43.1%. We cannot grow the middle class if the poor and middle class cannot afford to attend college.

It has become much more difficult for students to work their way through college. From ‘The Myth of Working Your Way through College’ published by The Atlantic Monthly Group, “…the average student in 1979 could work 182 hours (a part-time summer job) to pay for a year's tuition. In 2013, it took 991 hours (a full-time job for half the year) to accomplish the same.” Yes, 182 hours vs 991 hours. That's a massive difference. This doesn’t even take into account the costs of room and board.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/23/charts-just-how-fast-has-college-tuition-grown

Today, some students opt out before even beginning college. When I was teaching, I saw this happen every year. Students became discouraged because they had no way to finance college without going deeply into debt. What is the point of attending college if you're going to be so deep in debt that ten or twenty years after you graduate, you'll be in no better shape financially if you didn't bother to go at all? Our country has to do something about college costs if we are going to re-grow the middle class.

I propose Bernie Sanders solution of making tuition at public colleges an universities publicly funded, that is, free to all students, (excluding foreign students). Does no one remember our own country's history? When we first established public schools in our nation, for many years they were only elementary schools and those were mainly for the lower and middle classes. The wealthy were expected to pay for their children's educations. Yes, students back then received a grammar school education. Later, we added the upper grades and then, later, high schools became public. When I attended school, Kindergarten was not included. If your child attended Kindergarten back then, it was through a private program such as those provided by churches. Yet, Kindergarten was funded for all students in my home state in my lifetime as were preschool programs for the disadvantaged through federal programs such as Head Start. If we can do these things, why not college, too?

There are so many naysayers in this country when you mention publicly funded education that it's almost like telling someone in the 1800s that you want to build a program to send someone to the moon. It cannot be done, they say. We all know that it CAN be achieved. Many first-world countries now provide free tuition and fees. Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France and more have free tuition. Even Slovenia and Brazil have free higher education. Are the entire Republican field of presidential candidates and Hillary Clinton telling us that we are not as good, not as capable as these countries? Not as good as Slovenia or Brazil? I refuse to accept that. And you should too. Imagine what our youth could achieve if there were no barriers?!

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/middle-class-not-rich-or-poor-pay-majority-federal-taxes-says-cbo-data

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/23/charts-just-how-fast-has-college-tuition-grown https://smartasset.com/student-loans/countries-with-free-college