From One Generation to the Next

It is no secret that I want to be a grandfather someday. However, both my children, one approaching college graduation and the other an adult, show little interest in the prospect any time soon.

Most young adults these days do not settle down and start a family soon after college. Yet, 35 years ago when I graduated college, most did. One of the reasons for this difference is simple, and we're dealing with it right now in the legislature: the cost of college.

In recent years the cost of college has skyrocketed all over the country. Oregon is no exception. If the proposed budget passes, college students in Oregon will face a shocking tuition hike of 21%. This is because the proposed budget decreases state support from more than $5000 per student, to about $3700 per student. That's a 12.7% decrease in state funding from just two years ago.

Tuition hikes mean young Oregonians who attend a state university will face a tremendous financial liability, and will be saddled with an average $20,000 worth of debt at graduation. This debt means young people, who could be thinking of buying their first home, marrying, and starting a family, will instead be living very carefully and paying off debt.

Cutting funds also decreases access to a college degree. For every $100 that tuition goes up, 0.7% of young Oregonians are priced out of an education. With the proposed tuition hikes in this budget, 10,000 qualified students will be denied a college degree. This means 10,000 young people will be denied an important tool for earning money and raising a family.

Yet, last year, before tuition hikes, enrollment grew 10.5%. This year, the Co-Chairs' proposed higher education budget means that fewer new faculty will join state colleges to teach these new students. The teacher to student ratio will increase by 6% and student services and course offerings will also drop. Oregon's college students are paying more for less.

It's worth noting that having many indebted young adults causes an economic drag, at a time when Oregon's economy is already sputtering. Our colleges also serve as engines for economic development, and, for individual towns, a local university or community college can form the anchor of the local economy.

So, how, or rather, when should young Oregonians pay for college? They can't do it before they go to college when they have no money, and they shouldn't do it afterwards by paying down debt. Rather, they should pay for college later in life, when they are finally in their prime earning years, through paying taxes. By doing so, they ensure the generation following them will have access to higher education. When that following generation matures, they pay for the generation following them, and so forth.

This is the responsibility my generation -which got very low tuition rates when we were young- neglects whenever we cut funding for colleges.

We are asking today's students to pay now, when they are least able to do so. They take many extra years to graduate as they work their way through in low paying jobs, or they incur crushing debt that must be repaid in their low earning early career years.

This is not a good way to run a society, and it's not a good policy for grandpa wannabes. We can and must do better for our young adults.