Stuck in the expensive middle (class)

By STEPHANIE CRANE
Published: September 28, 2008

Yesterday, I saw my father for the first time in a week and a half. He was sleeping in the recliner on his day off, mouth gaping, the television inaudible under his snores. He had been working overtime to pay for my college tuition — and was utterly exhausted. Although education is an expensive business, tuition costs are unfair to middle-class students like me, because we are not eligible for financial aid, nor do we have the funds to carry sky-high college costs. Many families are expected to contribute far more than they can spare, and often middle-class students are not able to attend their first choice college because of cost.

In general, college is only easy to pay for if you are either very poor or very rich. Scholarship committees adore candidates who grew up in impoverished neighborhoods, were raised by a single parent or have experienced other adverse circumstances. If you are absolutely dirt poor, then college will be no problem for you. Financial aid will cover everything so that you will not be at a disadvantage. It simply would not be fair if some students were able to go to the college of their choice and others had to make do with their Plan B, right? Also, if you are very wealthy, then college costs will not be a challenge. Granted, affluent families usually do not qualify for any financial aid at all, but they don’t need it because college is often already paid for in the form of a savings account started when the student was very young, of just an excess of money that the parents can afford to shell out to the school of their child’s choice.

It is the middle-class students who are hurting in this situation. Often, middle-class families make just a little too much money to qualify for financial aid, or they only receive a small amount, but they simply do not have the funds to spare for college costs along with their everyday living expenses. Where do admissions officers think the money will come from exactly?

The government bureaucrats decide what your family is expected to contribute to the full cost of college: the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC. Apparently, this is a number that just gets pulled out of a hat by a very grumpy person who hates everyone. The government does not take into account any realistic idea of what other expenses a family might have, or maybe they just don’t care. It isn’t fair for complete strangers to tell our families what percentage of their income to spend on school for their children. Many peoples’ extra income is already committed to some other cause, such as helping to support an older sibling’s new family, or paying for a younger sibling’s tutor.

These expenses cannot simply be dropped for the sake of one child. Obviously, the government expects parents to have a favorite child and only do what’s best for that one. But that is rarely the case and should never be forced on a parent.

The final reason that tuition rates are unfair to middle-class students is that often they have to sacrifice for the sake of affordability. A student may be accepted to their first-choice college and have everything necessary for success except for money. As adults in the job market, we are judged by our college education (or lack thereof), and people who could not attend the college they had the potential to go to because of finances are essentially being judged by their social and financial standing. This is not fair, and could even be argued as discrimination. The American way of manifest destiny, pioneerism and pursuing liberty and happiness is completely inconsistent with this system. As American youth, we are encouraged that we can do anything we put our minds to, we are free, and therefore nothing holds us back from having the lives we want. According to this logic, money should never hold us back from getting the best education possible, and eventually the best career, so why is this allowed to happen?

Tuition costs these days are absolutely ridiculous. There should be more funding for schools so that they don’t have to ask these enormous amounts of money from students. Also, the financial aid system needs work most of all. Those in the lowest brackets of the income food chain are readily assisted, but if you’re in the middle, then no one cares about your problems. Just because a family isn’t struggling to meet everyday expenses doesn’t mean they can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for college costs. As Americans, it is our responsibility to make sure that this situation in our country changes. Our middle-class youth should not be held back from rising through the ranks of society by money.

• Stephanie Crane of Danville is a freshman at Averett University majoring in art and education.