Getting
a college education and income inequality has been a controversial issue for
many years. People who are in the upper class can afford
sending their kids to college because they have the money.
Those in the lower class receive a lot of financial aid because parents do not
make enough income; therefore,
students from lower class families can go to college since the government is
paying for them. But what happens to those
that are in the middle class? Parents in the middle class have enough income
coming in that they do not qualify for financial aid but do not make enough to
send their children to good universities. Students
coming from middle class families usually take out so many loans in order to
pay for their college education. By the time they are
finished with school, students are drowning in
student loan debt. According to CNN.com, the
average student loan debt in the United States as of 2013 is $29,400. Students
are not paying back the flat rate of what they took out; they have to pay back
what they borrowed plus interest rates.
While
starting college is difficult, it is even more difficult
to finish it. According to a different CNN.com article,
thirty-six percent of the upper-class students graduated with a degree, but
only five percent of the lower-income students graduated. Tim
Smeeding stated “One reason is the poor often go to lower-tier schools… These
institutions often have bigger classes and offer less individual attention and
guidance. Also, their parents don't have the financial means to aid their
children” (Luhby 2011). Student from low-income
families cannot afford to send their kids to top-tier schools; therefore, they
go to low-tiers school where they might not get the same education. A
lot of times low-income parents are only focused on putting food on the table,
that they do not give the support their kids need in order to finish school and
they end up dropping out (Luhby 2011). High-income
parents put a lot of pressure on their kids about how valuable getting an
education is that their kids do graduate college.
I
would consider my family to be part of the middle class. My
whole life I had the support of both my parents and they always told me that in
order to make it to the top I have to have a college degree. When
I first applied for financial aid, I was given so much money because my dad had
recently lost his job; therefore, the only income coming into the house was my
mom’s but her income was not enough to pay for my education. I
am the second child of three; therefore, my older sister was already in college
when I was a senior in high school. Although,
I received a lot of financial aid, I was not able to go to my school of choice
because it was still too expensive. I
wanted to attend the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, which is a
very prestigious university. I am not saying that
Concordia University at Chicago was a bad choice, because I really do love this
school and their professors, but in my opinion I am not getting the same level
of education I would have gotten at U of I. Income
makes a great difference when choosing if you are going to school or not and if
you are able to go to college it makes a difference in deciding what school to
attend. I
have been taking out loans since the day I started my first year of school. I
did not want to finish school and start the next chapter in my life in debt;
therefore, I got myself a job and began to pay off my loans.
College
tuition has increased 439% over the past decades and this caused middle-class
families to not be able to send their kids to college (Hutchison 2011). Today,
it is difficult to find a job where it does not require some sort of college
degree. Since getting a college degree is necessary now, many kids are going to
college and drowning themselves in loans in order to find a suitable job. The
job market is very competitive, because more and more people are getting
degrees. Jennifer
Hutchinson stated “just because middle-class students may have grown up in
nicer homes and in better neighborhoods than low-income students, that does not
mean that the government should deny them the financial aid grants that they so
desperately need” (Hutchison 2011). I
agree that the government has to do something about giving middle-class
students more financial aid grants, because if no financial aid is given to
these students, then there will be less of them graduating and receiving a
respectable degree. If fewer students graduate,
then this will also affect them in the long run as they become adults.
I
attended a Chicago Public School for high school. My high school was made up of
students from low-income families and middle-class income families. When I
graduated the majority of my class ended up going to one of the worst community
college in my neighborhood. They all went in with the hope of being there for
two years and then transferring to a four-year university. Today, most of them
either dropped out or are still trying to get their associates degree. I asked
many of my old classmates if they are still planning to transfer to a four-year
university and not one said yes. They all told me the same thing, which is that
they cannot afford the tuition and they would much rather get their associates
and start working. It saddens me that many students cannot get a bachelor’s
degree because their income is stopping them. There are so many people with
great potential to go further in life, but cannot go further because they
cannot afford to.
A
study was conducted by Edith Blackwell and Patrice Pinder.
Their research title read What are the
motivational Factors Of First-Generation Minority College Students Who Overcome
Their Family Histories To Pursue Higher Education? (Blackwell & Pinder
2014).
When students come from low-income families, they often do not get the support
or motivation they need to actually pursue higher education.
Edith Blackwell and Patrice Pinder conducted this study to find out what
motivates these students to go further in their education if they do not have
the income or support. In their finding they
discovered three motivating factors; a love for reading at an early age, they
each felt different from their siblings from an early age, and they all wanted
a better life for themselves (Blackwell & Pinder 2014). The
one that really stood out to me was that they wanted a better life for
themselves. These kids grew up in low-income households
so they probably saw what this was doing to their family and how they are
limited to things. In order to get out of the
low-class they need to have motivation either if it is from themselves or
others.
Income
inequality is huge concern today, because it is the decision-maker for
receiving a college education. Income should not be the
reason why students cannot get a degree and settle for minimum wage jobs.
This is only getting worse because as college tuition rises, more and more
families cannot afford to send their kids to college. More
kids from high-income families graduate from college, because their parents can
afford to send their kids to school, whereas, low-income students have to
settle for a community college or no school at all. In
my opinion middle-income students have it the worst, because they receive
little to no financial aid, because families do not meet the necessary
requirements. Low-income families make so little, that the
government gives them the most financial aid. There is a lot of inequality that
it is only going to get worse and hurt these students in the long run when they
become adults.
Work
cited
Blackwell, Edith, and
Patrice Juliet Pinder. “What are the motivational Factors Of First-
Generation
Minority College Students Who Overcome Their Family Histories To Pursue Higher
Education?.” College Student Journal
48.1(2014):45-56.Academic Complete.
Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
Ellis, Blake. "Average
Student Loan Debt: $29,400." CNNMoney. Cable News Network,
04
Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
<http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/04/pf/college/student-loan-debt/>.
Hutchinson, Jennifer.
"No Aid For You: Cheating the Middle Class | Commonplace." No
Aid
For You: Cheating the Middle Class | Commonplace.
N.p., 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.mhlearningsolutions.com/commonplace/index.php?q=node/5782>.
Luh, Tami. "Income Gap
Continues to Affect College Graduation Rates." CNNMoney.
Cable
News Network, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
<http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/21/news/economy/income_college/>.
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