Chester Green 1

Chester Green
Dr. Griffin
Tech Prep 12
4/30/14-5/6/14
Why the Government Should Help Financially Support College Tuition
Education is something that most people use to compare countries, so why isnt our
government helping us pay for it? For the past few decades the United States Government has
been helping less and less with tuition cost for its citizens. In the past couple of years many
government officials have been proposing bills to help students fund their education. In the next
few years could we see some major financial reform for higher level education?
If history is doomed to repeat itself, unfortunately the answer would be a no. The
government has been helping less and less with paying for higher level education. In fact for the
most part the government stays out of the college education game. Daniel Luzer noted this in his
article on college and its high cost, The cost of operating a college is perhaps getting higher but
at the same time, state governments are contributing less money (some 80 percent of American
college students attend public institutions). State support for public colleges and universities has
fallen by about 26 percent per full-time student in the last 20 years. (Luzer,
washingtonmonthly.com)This decrease in federal funding is more than likely the cause of most
college graduates being in some form of debt. The government does not fund higher education
pursuing students as much as they used to.

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However some of our elected officials are trying to rectify this problem. There are several
bills that have been proposed that allow the government to help college students finance their
education. Michigan State Representative David Knezek spoke about his plan called Pay-It-
Forward, Michigans plan would require students to agree to pay a fixed percentage of their
post-collegiate income 2% for community college students and 4% for university students
to the fund for five years for each year they attended school under the program. (Jesse,
freep.com) Knezeks plan would be able to help hundreds of students fund their education and
shows that there are ideas and bills out there that are viable enough to be enacted on the federal
level.
This plan along with many others could potentially create an end to people fearing
college for financial reasons. Bankruptcy due to student loans could become a thing of the past.
Susan Dynarski, a professor at the University of Michigan, stated the benefits of the Pay-It-
Forward Program, Spreading payments over 20 or 25 years, and linking them to earnings,
ensures borrowers against hard times. Payments flex up and down automatically, with borrowers
paying less when their incomes dip and more when incomes rise. (Jesse, freep.com) Programs
like this could potentially open the gates for all individuals to pursue a college degree. No longer
will individuals be chastised financially for wanting to pursue a higher education.
It is not out of the realm of possibility for our government to help students, who want to
better themselves through higher learning, financially. If bills like Representative David
Knezeks were enacted then the average college graduate wouldnt owe over $30,000 after they
graduate. With payment plans being based solely on your salary, the Pay-It-Forward Bill would
help prevent bankruptcy due to collegiate debt. With many students including myself worried

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about how they will finance their education, this bill could mean the difference between a career
as an engineer and a job as a cashier at McDonalds.

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Works Cited
Jesse, David. Pay it forward: Plan would allow Michigan students to attend college for
'free' freep.com. News., 19 March 2014. Web. 29 April 2014.
Luzer, Daniel. Can We Make College Cheaper? washingtonmonthly.com. College
Guide., 13 April 2012. Web. 29 April 2014