8 College affordability is a far reaching issue that leaves no one untouched and has effects that resonate throughout society THE PROBLEM TODAY Since 1980 the topic of education costs has become more prominent as each year the price of tuition rises faster than the rate of inflation In 1975 a student at a public university could have funded a year's tuition by working a minimum wage job six hours per week Today however that reality feels far distant More than 40 years and countless tuition INSPIRATION FOR THE MILLION STUDENT MARCH The Million Student March was the brainchild of Elan Axelbank and Keely Mullen students at Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts The inspiration for the movement came in 2015 from Senator Bernie Sanders then a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate The students saw an interview between journalist Katie Couric and Sanders During the interview Sanders stated If a million young people march on Washington and say to the Republican leadership We know what's going on and you better vote to deal with the student debt You better vote to make public universities and colleges tuition free that's when it Laction from legislators will happen increases later an average student would need to put in at least 32 hours per week at a minimum wage job to pay only tuition and fees College tuition is higher than ever before and in 2015 the comprehensive
9 price tag which includes tuition fees room and board of 57 US private colleges crept past 60 000 In 2015 tuition overall was approximately three times higher than it had been in 1980 even when accounting for inflation Many schools both public and private are quick to point out that the advertised sticker price of tuition and fees is not what many students pay For the most part only high income students who do not qualify for merit based aid pay the full amount The number of students paying full price varies from school to school At some schools none of the students pay list price Up to half of the students pay the sticker price at some top tier schools Overall approximately 77 percent of students at private schools receive some kind of tuition discount Their average discount is around 42 percent of the total tuition cost Even so the net tuition and fees or discounted tuition and fees that students pay continues to increase The amount of aid available has increased since 1990 However for the most part that aid increase has not kept pace with skyrocketing tuition and fees Only at two year institutions has the average net price decreased In some instances
Tuition has nearly TRIPLED 10 Students on the UCLA campus protested the university's tuition increases financial aid and scholarships more than cover the cost of tuition and fees Yet students at four year public and private institutions have been hard hit At private schools the average amount of student financial aid tripled between 1990 and 2015 Over that same period net tuition increased by approximately 30 percent from 11,400 to 14,890 in 2015 dollars Public schools saw an even larger leap Between 1990 and 2015 average student aid increased by more than three times while the net price more than doubled from 1 890 to 3,980 in 2015 dollars It is not only tuition and fees that put pressure on students pocketbooks The prices of room and board and
11 textbooks have also increased Room and board rates have doubled at public and private colleges since 1980 The amount students pay for textbooks has grown at a rate even faster than tuition and fees Perhaps the most important dollar amount in this is the one that has barely increased the median family income Since the 1970s the median family income has stayed relatively flat when accounting for inflation In 1974 families earned 62,000 per year in 2015 dollars In 2015 the median family income was 64,000 As a result college tuition even the discounted net price eats up more of a family's income than ever before Overall higher education has become less affordable to all but the highest income earners students from families with annual incomes of more than 200,000 each year HOW TUITION WORKS There was a time when schools determined their tuition by looking at the rates of their competitors However tuition setting has become an intense numbers game To determine tuition a school first calculates its education cost or the amount of money it takes to educate one
