Faced with diminishing revenue, public university administrators in the U.S. have doubled tuition since 2000. As a consequence, students are going deeper into debt than at any other time in U.S. history. In 2010, the amount of student loan debt surpassed credit card debt, and at the end of 2011 may have hit $1 trillion. The current model of higher education is not sustainable.
Given this crisis, I propose an apparently radical but simple solution: The federal government should abolish tuition for all public institutions of higher education.
Abolishing tuition would be inexpensive. In the 2008-09 school year, just under $52 billion of public university revenue came from tuition. Compare that to the $117 billion spent on the war in Afghanistan in 2011. For the cost of a few months of the ongoing quagmire in Afghanistan, we could pay the tuition of every student, undergraduate and graduate, in public universities in the country.
This proposal has some notable precedents. The City University of New York system offered free education to students until New York City's financial crisis forced a change in 1976. California's 1960 Master Plan for Education declared that the University of California system "shall be tuition free to all residents" (UC students have long paid "fees"-a de facto tuition). Most importantly, the 1944 Montgomery GI Bill sent millions of WWII veterans to college with no cost to them and a small stipend for living expenses. Universal free higher education would simply be "the GI Bill for everyone."
Along with tuition, we would also be abolishing that nefarious racket called the student loan industry. Student loan debt is more punitive than any other form of debt. Borrowers cannot declare bankruptcy and lenders can seize payments from wages, tax returns, even social security and disability benefits. As if repaying student loans were not already difficult, borrowers can even lose professional licenses for failure to repay. President Obama's proposed "pay as you earn" plan, a debt reconsolidation scheme announced in October, does nothing to change this.
These goals are achievable but there is also a lot at stake for those who would benefit. From an economic standpoint, now is one of the worst times in memory to be a young adult. In an article called "The Curse of the Class of 2009," the Wall Street Journal wrote that recent college graduates are experiencing "the worst job market in 25 years." According to economist Lisa Kahn, even people who find jobs during periods of high unemployment suffer from depressed wages for up to 15 years. Fewer young people are finding jobs with health care benefits and more are living with their parents after graduation. To discuss these issues and what to do about them, the UW branch of the International Socialist Organization is holding an event "Higher Education Should Be Free" this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Science Hall 360.
The Occupy movement has brought discussion of inequality back into American politics, and although police repression may have shut down the original encampments, the movement has struck a chord with millions of Americans. Skimming wearethe99percent.tumblr.com, one can find many stories of people held hostage to debt, including mortgages, medical bills and student loans. The movement is a cry to amend the incredible inequality in this country. My suggestion for where to begin: "Higher education is a right and, like the K-12 system, should be available free of charge."
Paul Pryse is a student at UW-Madison. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
