Higher Education: Soaring Out of Reach for Families

The conservative call for free markets, privatization and deregulation sounds sensible. But the reality of crony capitalism and pay to play politics too often benefits inefficient corporate lobbies over the public good. These core conservative ideals are compromising American education and weakening this nation.

The conservative mantra of "lower taxes, smaller government" is poll-tested to appeal. But the reality — tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts in domestic programs for working and poor people — doesn't work for most Americans. The result? Thousands of American students with the grades and desire to go to college simply cannot afford to go.

Here are the facts:

• The president has broken his campaign promise to raise Pell grants, the basic government scholarship program, to help cover rising costs
• Conservative lawmakers in Congress cut $12 billion this year from the student loan program — even while interest rates were hiked on college loans, and billions in tax giveaways were lavished on the wealthiest Americans.
• The average graduate of a four-year college will depart with $23,600 in student loans and $2,000 in credit card debt.
• The government could save $7 on every $100 in loans simply by providing loans to students directly. But bankers have lobbied successfully to remain the middle men, profiting from administering government guaranteed student loans. They lavished $3.5 million in campaign contributions on legislators since 2004 — over three-fourths to the Republican majority.

American students and their parents are essentially on their own. Families and students are taking on more and more debt to cover higher education costs. Many students are forced to forgo the education that they have earned because they can't afford the cost.

College costs are soaring (tuition is up about 40 percent since President Bush took office in 2001), but college assistance hasn't kept up.

Americans agree that higher education is more important than ever, yet America is falling behind, ranking 13th in college affordability among industrialized nations, and falling to fourth in percentage of eligible students who enter college.