Candidates Must Do More to Offset College Tuition

One of the arguments circulating the Bwogosphere for the return of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps to Columbia goes that opening our ivy-covered gates to the military will allow more economically disadvantaged students to wonder in. After all, the ROTC offers full scholarships to low-income college hopefuls—provided they serve eight years in the military after graduation, four of those being years of active duty. Reinstating the ROTC may or may not be the road to economic diversity on our campus, but there is something fundamentally unjust about the fact that poorer students must risk their lives to finance the same education that more well-to-do parents can offer their children hassle-free.

For the majority of us living between these two extremes, Columbia University’s $51,866 a year for tuition, room and board is still a hurdle we will be jumping long into the future. Today, 65.7 percent of undergraduate students will graduate with college debt—the average student among that 65.7 percent will owe $20,000 in loans as he or she begins to look for work. I am sure many of you already know the sacrifices you might have to make to pay off your Columbia education—the corporate jobs you might take, the decade you might have to wait to buy a house, spend a year abroad, or start a family. So as our country races into election season once again, we as students should pay attention to what the candidates promise to do to make a college education accessible to all.

John McCain’s higher education plan does not offer any real relief for low-income or middle-income students. He promises to “simplify higher education tax benefits” and “simplify federal financial aid.” But according to the College Board, the Hope Scholarship Tax Credit for students in their first two years of college is a maximum of $1,650 a year, while the Lifetime Learning Credit offers to pay only 20 percent of $10,000 paid in tuition and fees. Between $1,000 to $2,000 of your own money given back to you does not do much against $50,000 a year. In addition, McCain only addresses the issue of college loans by vowing to make sure they are accessible. With two-thirds of students graduating in debt, accessibility to college loans isn’t the issue.

Barack Obama takes a step in the right direction with his American Opportunity Tax Credit. His plan will make the first $4,000 of college tuition free for most Americans and will pay for two thirds the cost of most state universities. Recipients are asked to perform 100 hours of community service—a better deal than being asked to risk your life in the military. His plan will give a boost to low-income students at schools like the City University of New York, where a majority of students need financial aid even to pay an annual tuition of $4,000. But it will not offer those same students easy access to schools like Columbia.

It is not impossible for our politicians to assure us equal access to quality education—governments in Europe and Canada heavily subsidize universities and as a result, tuition is nominal or free. It is a matter of priorities. Our government has already spent over 2 trillion dollars on the Iraq War. That money could be better spent guaranteeing every American student a university education. Instead, our progressive candidates offer tuition assistance in the low thousands while army recruiters bribe college-hungry young adults to help our government continue the war. If we want anyone, regardless of income, to have access to the best education our country has to offer without having to put his or her life on the line, we as students and as citizens must demand our next president and congress put our needs as students above the need for cannon fodder.

The author is a Barnard College senior majoring in English and creative writing. She is a member of the Students for a Democratic Society.