The first week of May 2008, bill HR 5715 was signed into law. Politicians on both sides of the aisle hailed it as financial relief for the families of college students. With the increase in gas and food prices and the mortgage meltdown, congress was concerned that its future work force (and future tax base) would be unable to afford to return to college in the fall.
Rather than increasing grant amounts and enlarging the number of students eligible for Pell grants, the government in its wisdom only increased the amount of money a student can borrow. Not only does our congress mortgage our country’s future government, it is now encouraging each of its citizens to start their lifetime earning potential in debt, deep debt.
If a student were to borrow the maximum amount of Stafford loan money available before the increases passed by Congress, they would be in debt to the tune of $220 a month for 10 years, and only IF the $19,000 was all they borrowed for 4 years of college. Currently, the University of Virginia cost of attendance for ONE year is over $19,000.
For a student to complete an undergraduate degree in four years at the state’s premiere university (and most students do not finish in four years, the average is five years due to scheduling problems and major changes) at a very conservative 6% per year increase, will cost over $80,000. And that conservative increase is not useful this year: Virginia Tech announced a tuition and fees increase of over 10%. They didn’t announce their housing and meal plan increases, but you can be sure they will be on the bill.
And don’t even try to estimate the cost of a private college education. Bridgewater College is currently charging $32,990 for one year’s tuition, fees, room and board which gives you a whopping $144,319 over four years with the conservative 6% per year increase. Now you can add the transportation, books or “pizza and laundry” budget for each year. And Bridgewater is not one of the most expensive private colleges either.
Families are facing financial strain from many directions: gasoline, food, credit, and now college. The much vaunted relief offered by congress last week only serves to place our students in more debt, creating a future mortgaged from all directions.
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