Why Do Students Get Paid?

Many high school seniors have been busy applying to colleges, filling out applications, tracking down teachers to write recommendations, and writing amazing essays on why they should be considered. But even if these students are accepted into their dream schools, they face another challenge: paying for it. I feel the number one challenge for the class of 2017 is going to be rising tuition costs.

The Education system in today's society is slowly becoming more bitter. Between high expenses for education and not enough preparation for the future, kids are not receiving enough knowledge. The student’s repeated complaints of school and how it affects them has caused an uproar in society. Parent’s urgency about their child's work ethic and Grade Point Average (GPA) has made some schools reassess on how they are preparing and teaching children. The controversy on how students being paid for going to school could benefit student society is still under argument. While some believe earning money for grades can promote cheating and cause students to argue about how money differentiates, others believe the money can encourage

These numbers show clearly how unfair Pennsylvania’s school funding is. School income shapes the students’ success, and without enough resources this goal cannot be met.

If you are currently in college or soon will be, the thought of getting some student scholarships has probably crossed your mind. If it has not, then you are either independently wealthy or have not taken a good long look at the sky rocketing cost of a good college education these days.

I come from a middle class family, but paying the exorbitant costs of college tuition will be financially straining to my family; many families across the country can attest to this. The government designed financial aid to be need based, still the middle class is too rich to qualify for financial aid, yet too poor to be able to pay for tuition out of pocket.

Middle class students are finding it difficult to afford tuition prices without any financial help, that being loans or financial aid. When it comes to covering tuition costs middle class families are the ones that have to face the different problems. In Jeffrey Selingo’s article “Perspective Can the Middle Class Afford College?” he says “ “You have students who can afford to pay tuition at once, have low income students who receive financial aid. What happens to the students in the middle?”. A good majority of middle class families make just a little bit more above of the financial aid cut off making them ineligible to get any financial aid therefore they have to rely on student loans. FAFSA is a really good program it helps out many students in the United States but according to Luke Redd’s article “Should College Be Free? Here's What You Need to Consider” it says “Although it benefits many students, the nation's existing financial aid systems currently fails to provide an equal opportunity to every qualified American”. You have students who get all of their tuition covered and still receive a little bit of extra cash for books and supplies while others only receive about half of what their tuition

Thousands of people dedicate their life to working in the financial aid field, and billions of people are sent financial aid daily; however, the system has flaws that must be changed. Financial aid is sent out to millions of people who do not use the money in the intended manner; and in turn, are stealing from our government. Government financial aid should be given based on GPA, how many hours have been put into a job or career, community service hours, etc., because it would prevent the government from providing financial aid to individuals whom are inadequate. Nonetheless, thousands of Americans that are receiving financial aid qualify and are in need of the financial aid in order to keep themselves and their family alive and well, or go through the schooling to receive the education that they desire.

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

When the topics of student financial aid are being addressed I strongly believe that the government should be involved in the inequalities of social class. Some hard working upper and middle class families still struggle to make ends meet, but are not always given the financial support need to help their child attend college. The more money you have, the less financial support you will receive. Families should not be penalized from receiving any financial aid. The hard working student should be given the financial support to attend college. Unfortunately families that are less fortunate receive more financial aid funds and grants to help them out. This topic should be equal across the board.

In William Elliot’s article,”Are We Getting Our Money's Worth?”, he writes more about the lower income students struggling to get into college because of the fear of debt. Those students who use loans to pay their way into college usually end up in debt because of the interest on the loans and the high college costs, which then causes them to want to drop out. “As the low income and poor students rises so do their dropout rates and debt”(Elliot 26). The fact is middle and upper income student are able to use student aid to join more expensive colleges, while low income students are only able to be accepted in less expensive home state colleges. The people of low and high income are not treated equally even if they both work equally hard in life to succeed and have an education. Elliot believes that,”a college education should be offered to all graduates and they all should receive equal opportunities to achieve financial success”(Elliot 31). In other words graduates should have

Another factor that may lead low-income students to not perform as well compared to middle-income

College students drop out of college for not being qualified for financial aid. Thirty-eight percent drop outs of financial which means their parents do not have enough funds for college. A student may have all the abilities attend college but do not have the financial resources. In this world today parents should have less worries about college fees. If parents put food on the table, washes clothes and dishes,pay the bills that keep a roof over their family’s head, then they should not have to worry about college funding for their child.

A majority of aid goes towards families that have a lower income; rather than those with a classified reasonable income. Through the years as income increased the amount of expenses paid by families largely increased. Although college is expensive,

Financial aid is a very large problem in modern society with kids who are striving to make it to college for further education. Said simply, college is expensive. This specifically depends on the type of college one chooses to attend. Often times, in state college is more affordable than out of state, because there is something called ‘in state tuition.’ This higher education tends to be very expensive for a plethora of reasons. The first major reason is the fact that college professors are supposedly smarter or have a broader understanding of the study area than do high school teachers. Also, college is where students earn a degree that causes them to also earn a higher-paying job in the future. Statistics show that college graduates are much more likely to get a job. This can be a critical concept in an age when everything revolves around money and unemployment is on the high and still getting more extreme. Another reason college is so expensive is because many colleges make it virtually impossible to achieve a four-year bachelor’s degree in the actual four years. Many colleges require four and a half years, or even five. Those who complete this degree of education often finish after four years of college because they need a certain amount of class requirements, though the reality of packing all of these requirements into four years is unrealistic considering the hustle and bustle of society and more specifically, college students. Unless these

The OECD reports that 1/3 of the countries out of the total 35 have zero fees regarding tuition costs at the bachelor level. While the United States has the highest annual costs worldwide at $8200 a year (OECD 2017). The overall abstract from tuition prices is actually lower than published because many students benefit from grant aid, as well as other outside sources. (The College Board). In the United States over the past 20 years tuition has more than doubled regarding both public and private institutions, but at the same time subsides of student aid have not increases accordingly. A snapshot of the numbers detail that a slight increase in tuition has been made totaling 110 percent while aid has only increase 68 percent. While the increase in median family income is even less at a 22 percent increase (Senate Hearing 106-515).