In a country where fresh-out-of-college adults (as well as some who aren’t so fresh anymore) act as knights swinging the sword of financial stability at the fire-breathing dragon of student loans, it isn’t much of a question why students consider college such a huge fiasco. Often by the early years of middle school, students know that college is expensive … And that they are expected to attend one. College shouldn’t be so costly, especially since there’s pressure now of every individual to attend.

The age-old complaint of college students (that is, besides having nothing to eat besides ramen) lies simply in this question: why does all of this have to be so expensive? Considering that school was mandatory and paid for them by taxes for most of their entire school life, this is a valid question. If college is a gateway to basic success and a quality job, therefore affecting the attendee’s entire life turnout afterwards, why is it so hard to pay for? Of course, this is explains why student loans are offered. As if to say, “Hey! We’ll pay for your education now and as soon as you get a good job that education allowed you to have, you can pay us back!” Ingenious idea, right?

In theory, student loans seem like a savior for struggling students. So, why is cost still such a problem? Basically everyone is eligible for student loans, but only 37 percent of those people who do take out loans are up-to-date on payments, or have them payed off. It also happens that about 50 percent of that number are still in school or have sought out programs that help avoid payment. On top top of this, student loans don’t just go away in the same way bankruptcy happens; it’s not discharged through this method or any other that are nearly as easy.

With so much struggle on the issue, what’s being done about it? President Obama recently proposed that community college should offer free tuition for students who have not as much opportunity. Of course, this seems like an excellent idea considering that schooling K-12 has been government regulated and not so extremely money-draining as higher college education. Why not provide an option for college if students are fully expected to go in order to make it to independent adulthood? Even if this does not cover universities, it still seems to be a solid idea.

Though the President’s ideas seem worth a try and could potentially help up to 9 million students per year, it’s still a spark of debate. It’s no secret that a large chunk of college expense is due to food, living and materials, such as textbooks. All of the “extras” of college life surely aren’t cheap. Of course, there’s also the problem of general motivation to do well. If tuition is free, will students care less? Will jobs start looking for the legitimacy of education when accepting work? It would certainly make sense that university education will continue to be valued higher than community college.

Even if President Obama is trying to take action on the price of college, student loan debt is still staggering. Unfortunately, many going into college still seem to perceive that this debt is simply exchanged for college degrees; it has become a sacrifice in the minds of the average student. The reality is, students simply should not be having to provide such a sacrifice for something that they’ve been conditioned to see as mandatory for success.

Works Cited

Dash, Stephen. “A Guide to Obama’s Free Community College Plan.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Mar. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2015.

Lawler, Joseph. “Here’s Why Student Loan Delinquencies Are so High.”Washington Examiner. N.p., 30 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2015.

Cancio, Colleen. “Who Qualifies for a Student Loan?” HowStuffWorks. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2015.

College Graduation. N.d. Getty Images, n.p.