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When I went to college my parents gave me all the financial help they could-which happened to be nothing. But through borrowing, working and scholarships I got through with a diploma and a little booklet of coupons I'd rip out and mail to a bank along with a check for the next 10 years.
No complaints. I'm still using the education and the student loan was a good introduction to personal fiscal responsibility.
But now I'm the father of a high school junior. He's looking at colleges and I'm getting sick. The good news is I can help him more than my folks could help me. The bad news is that college costs have skyrocketed since the sun was setting on the 1960s and I headed off to my rendezvous with higher learning.
Talk about sticker shock!
Just in the past 10 years tuition at public colleges and universities in the US rose by nearly 50 percent. Last year the average was 14 percent; in New Jersey it was just under 10. And while borrowing is still an option, well over half of graduates are being saddled with an average debt of $17,000, compared to just under $3,000 15 years ago.
That's why the college assistance plan recently proposed by Gov. James E. McGreevey is encouraging. Under his STARS program, New Jersey high school graduates who finish in the top 20 percent of their class get free tuition at any community college in the state. Published estimates say STARS would help about 10,000 students a year and cost $10 million.
Encouraging, yes. But let's face it, a lot of students top-achieving students want a four-year institution. And while for many, community college is a great place to start, it doesn't offer enough for a lot for others.
We need to do more. Considering that we have long since passed the time when college was a frill, there has to be a better way. A college education is a necessity and it ought to be a right, too. In fact, it ought to be free.
You heard right. Any high school graduate who meets the admissions requirements of a public two- or four-year college ought to be able to go without paying.
It's not unheard of. And you don't have to go across the Atlantic to the social democracies of Western Europe or travel back in time to the heyday of City College of New York or the California state college system, pre budget-cuts. You need only take a drip down to that hotbed of radicalism known as Georgia to see this philosophy in action. In 1993, Georgia initiated the HOPE Scholarship Program with pretty simple rules. Students who maintain a B average get scholarships, grants and book allowances to cover education at any public college in the state. Georgia pays for this with the state lottery, and so far nearly 800,000 students have benefited at a cost to the state of $1.8 billion.
Comparatively speaking, that's not a lot of money. And it's hard to imagine an expenditure that is a greater investment in the future of society. Experts who have analyzed the potential for a free-college program at the national level report that the cost is surprisingly low. Tuition and fees at two- and four-year public colleges runs about $130 billion a year. That would be less than two percent of the federal budget. However, since a lot of public money already funds college costs, making college free would mean adding only an additional $30-$60 billion a year.
Of course, this isn't really free. We'd be saying to college students that all the rest of us will chip in and get them educated, knowing that when they go off into the world of work they will get their chance to pay taxes that will help to educate the next generation, and so on. I'd be willing to pay a little extra to make this happen. Wouldn't you?
But while we're waiting for the federal government to wake up, let's get started in New Jersey. Let's tell the Governor and Legislature that we care enough about our kids and our future that we want to aim even higher than the STARS program.
We could do this. We should do this.
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