What's on Katie's Mind? Katie: The artist, teacher, and social commentator.

I kind of miss the days when my son could get excited about his day.  For many years I could always count on my son to say, “This is the best day of my life!”  These days for Josh happened quite frequently.  They usually happened when he got something he really wanted.  They always made me laugh because each one was the best day of his life.  In recent times I haven’t heard that saying from Josh.  He seems to be mostly preoccupied with student loan debt.  His goal in life is now to be free of his student loan debt.  This will take some time as the cost of college has become astronomical.

I remember when I went to college back in the seventies.  I received my B.F.A. in 1977 and left Michigan State University with $3600 in student loans.  At the time I lamented the fact that I would be paying it off over a period of ten years.  I think I paid something like $41 a month.  It wasn’t a lot whatever it was.  Today our children are swamped with bills that are many times what we paid as young people.  My son has student loans that are way over ten times what I paid.  He had grant and scholarship money but the cost of an education today is enormous.  This is the current information from the University of Michigan where my son went to school:

Estimated Budgets for Fall/Winter 2010-2011 (September – April)

* Note that the distinction between lower division and upper division is made on the basis of the number of credit hours you have completed (including AP and transfer credits), not on the basis of the number of years you have attended.
**Based on the 150 Block Meal Plan

As you can see the cost of an education at the University of Michigan is tremendous for most working class people.  If you have money or are fortunate to have a lot of scholarship money, this might not seem too bad.  However, if you are like my son, raised by a single parent, but not at the poverty level and not a minority, you will probably graduate with a boat load of debt.

The government isn’t really helping the situation.  At the federal level money to the states has been cut and at the state level states can’t afford their budgets so they are slashing education costs.  This includes the costs to state universities.  Across the country students are protesting the increased costs of tuition.  Many students are staying in school longer and getting graduate degrees because they know there aren’t any jobs for them at this time.  They are delaying the inevitable onslaught of their own demise of student loans.  Hopefully, they will be able to get high paying jobs when they get out as they will need it to pay off their student debt.

The future outlook for these young people is a bit scary in my opinion.  In the teaching field young teachers are really getting the shaft.  They are probably going to end up with a far reduced retirement package just like what they can expect from their social security.  The country keeps borrowing money for these two wars we are involved in to the detriment of our young people.  I imagine many young people today will start their lives out in debt and remain there for most of their lives.

I like to watch HGTV.  I watch shows where young people are buying their first homes.  The amount they are paying for these homes is huge.  I always wonder what jobs these kids have on these shows.  Many put little or nothing down.  The shows were probably filmed awhile ago.  It really explains a lot about what was happening with the housing market in the last few years.  I saw a young teacher just yesterday on a show buy her first house and she had a payment of $1900 a month.  That is totally ridiculous as no young teacher could afford that.  She said something about getting a roommate but it still was a strange show to watch.  I think I know a bit about money and most teachers’ salaries wouldn’t support such an amount.

If young people have huge student loans and outrageous housing costs they are going to have to make tremendous amounts of money to support both of these or live with mom and dad and pay off their student loans.  The days of the sixties are really over.  I have brothers that went to college in the sixties and they had every break in the book when it came to the cost of both their education and housing.  It is this generation that is now retired and living large that is sucking the life out of our young people.  My son can’t get over why old people get a break on everything from free city bus passes to discounts for every other thing in life.  My answer to him is the fact that old people vote.  The government can always count on old people to vote so congress will listen to them.  Old people may be half way in the grave but they will get out and vote unlike the young that may have better things to do that day.  The laws have been written for the old for years.  Of course years ago the aging population was a mess.  Thanks to FDR that has been turned around.  Of course we all know plenty of old people that aren’t living large and that are living from paycheck to paycheck just like most of working America.  Life for them wasn’t as rosy as it was for my brothers.

As Americans it doesn’t do any good to divide all of us and feel resentment to the old or to the youth.  The truth is all people deserve to live without worrying about their jobs, healthcare and wondering how to make enough money to take care of ourselves.  The pursuit of the American dream shouldn’t be so scary that we spend our lives in debtor’s prison paying off our student loans and our house.  My son should be able to say, “This is the best day of my life!” even when he’s twenty six and living on his own.   He and others like him shouldn’t feel the overwhelming weight of endless debt just because he chose to further his education.  An education shouldn’t be just for the wealthy, minorities and the poor.  An education should be for everyone that dreams of the American dream.  If I was making the laws an education would be free for anyone that wanted to learn.  I wouldn’t make an education so expensive that life becomes more about the dream of making money than the dream of true fulfillment.  In my mind an education should be about opening your mind to the possibilities of living a fulfilled life that includes art, music and the humanities.  Life is too short to spend chasing dollar signs and paying off student loan debt.  I know for my son, Josh, he will once again tell me, “This is the best day of my life!” when he is free of the weight of his student loan debt.  Unfortunately, I expect that day to be far into the future!