One Culprit of College Cost Revealed by New Hampshire Study

The rising price of college is leaving students and families in ridiculous amounts of debt. As a college applicant myself, a huge concern of mine is the cost of college. I want to be able to attend a four year college, and hopefully graduate school as well, but don't want to be overwhelmed by debt after I graduate. While many politicians and government officials want to discuss the problem of debt, the root problem that needs to be taken care of first is the cost of college. This article focused particularly on the state of New Hampshire and highlights a major cause of rising college prices.

While there are many reasons behind why college is so expensive now, a think tank called Demos brought a specific reason to notice in a study they did in New Hampshire this year. According to their findings, the state of New Hampshire decreased its investment in higher education by 43% from 2008 to 2012. With less support from state governments, colleges resort to increasing the price of tuition and housing in order stay afloat and have enough money for improving the school. Demos also found that higher education was the first area of the state budget to get funding cuts whenever a recession took place. 

These higher education budget cuts have not been replaced largely in part because politicians are not eager to raise taxes. I mean, nobody is really eager to have higher taxes. If what is happening in New Hampshire is also taking place in other states, something needs to be done by the government to help higher education become more affordable. It is unfair for states to keep taking away money from higher education. While I understand that things like health care and infrastructure may seem more important than a college degree, a generation of kids in debt is not ideal either. 

Even though the price of college is going through the roof, people continue to pay for it due to the importance of a higher education degree in the workforce. Families who can't afford today's college prices are going in to a lot of debt. It makes me wonder if a college degree is really worth taking on thousands of dollars in debt? According to the article "more than half of millennials are delaying major life events such as buying their first homes because of their student debt." I know that when I graduate college, I want to be able to afford things like a house and a car and be able to sustain myself. However, with no foreseeable drop in the price of college, I'm not sure if that is a realistic desire at this point. Education is important, and everybody should have access to it. Data and studies like this should be a red flag signaling our government to take serious action about this problem.