Education activists met on Capitol Hill this week to discuss college affordability and pending higher education reform legislation. KATIE ROGERS (MNS)
WASHINGTON – Faced with an unforgiving job market and a slumped economy, young people are saying they’re not getting the financial break they need when it comes to college.
They are, however, getting angry.
Last month, University of California students began rallying against tuition hike protests after the school announced a 32 percent undergraduate tuition hike, raising fees to $10,302, up from $8,373. Protests at on the Berkeley campus resulted in almost 100 arrests in two days.
But tangles with law enforcement haven’t quelled student activism: As recently as this week, students were still protesting. About 30 UC Santa Barbara students fasted Wednesday to show their frustration.
Victor Sanchez, president of the 200,000-strong UC Student Association, said anger comes from what students view as a lack of leadership and the absence of advocates for higher education. This, Sanchez said, has resulted in two choices for middle-to low-income students: Take out private loans with high interest rates to close the college cost gap, or miss out completely on getting an education.
“There’s no more vanguards,” Sanchez said, “no more champions for higher education. What’s at stake here is a prioritizing problem.”
The UC protests are the latest in a string of events organized by students frustrated by tuition raises, particularly since the recession took hold. Claiming a lack of transparency, University of the District of Columbia and Howard University students joined in Washington to their school administrations after tuition was raised in February. In March, Hunter College of the City University of New York students rallied against a slash in funding and tuition hike.
These frustrations are justified. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment for people aged 16 to 24 rests at a staggering 19.1 percent, compared with a 10.2 percent national average.
For many young people, figuring out how to pay for college contributes to the stress. According to the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, the average undergraduate debt for students is $27,000.
Angus Johnston, a social movements historian and blogger, said student protests are becoming increasingly commonplace – it’s just that the most extreme demonstrations are the ones that make news.
“There’s a lot more going on, even more than the people who pay attention can recognize,” Johnston said at a recent college affordability discussion in Washington that was sponsored by Campus Progress. “Using California as a touchstone, it’s going to give us all a bigger picture of what’s going on.”
Johnston added that the nature of student protests have evolved along with the changing student complexion of college campuses and, also, the availability of funding.
“In the 1960’s, the grant-to-loan ratio was 80-20,” Johnston said. “Now it’s pretty much reversed. More students are working. They have more stresses.”
According to nonprofit organization The College Board, total loan dollars to undergraduates have increased by $34.9 billion, over the past decade. Undergraduate enrollment has increased by 30 percent, or 2.8 million students.
Pedro de la Torre III, a senior advocacy associate for Campus Progress, said increasing aid to balance a high-fee, high-aid model is not enough.
“It’s not sustainable to increase the tuition over the price of inflation every year,” de la Torre said. “To the extent possible, it needs to be minimized.”
Using what happened in California as a lens, concerned students, lawmakers and education activists are mobilizing in Washington in attempts to push the issue of college tuition into the limelight. But others, like UC Washington Center Director Bruce Cain, said student protesters might not understand the legislative process, instead taking their frustration out on school administrators instead of lawmakers.
“[Students] have to be part of the broader political picture,” Cain said. “You can’t simply be focused on administrators, who, I admit, haven’t made a strong enough case for public education.”
In California specifically, home to the world’s ninth-largest economy, lawmakers find themselves grappling with a budgetary freefall and supermajority requirements before tax reform or budget bills can be passed.
At the Campus Progress event, Rep. Tim Bishop, D-NY, touted the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would invest $3 billion in college access programs for students and wrangling in private loan companies. The bill, Bishop said, could help families of all income levels have access to “that slice of the American dream.”
The bill would also increase the availability of federal Pell Grant and Perkins Loan funding, revamp the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and reroute federal loans from outside lenders to a market-proof “Direct Loan” program.”
Students and activists say they’ll be watching to see what Congress can do to provide relief. Sanchez hopes the UC protests will spark an ongoing dialogue between students, their administrations and the government:
“You haven’t seen the last of us yet.”