2008 Woodie Awards
Financing college still tough in United States
Issue date: 10/26/07 Section: Rocket Letters
To the editor:
I am amazed at how ignorant my college years were.
I felt, as did a great many, that tuition hikes were just the norm. Sometimes, I got mad at Governor Ridge back then for having money to build a new Three Rivers Stadium when the SSHE got screwed out of its needed subsidies. Yet, there is another option for funding university tuition.
I am now in graduate school in Vancouver, BC. It is incredible how much the provinces of Canada subsidize the cost of tuition, making it affordable for working families. You pay taxes, but you receive the benefit of a society that truly doesn't feel the need to place the full burden of funding on those who cannot afford it. Without those subsidies from the province, Canadian universities would cost as much as American universities.
In-state tuition costs for me during my undergraduate years at the Rock (1999 to 2003) are the cost of international tuition here currently. The undergraduate cost of tuition for a Canadian in the Ontario schools is usually around $5,000 Canadian for the year. On top of that, as a graduate student I pay the domestic rate of tuition (sadly, no tuition waiver).
I won't tell you how much that is, but let me assure you it is low. So while your editorial staff esteemed that members of Congress put aside their differences for making university education more affordable, all that means is that the burden of your education is still on you to finance.
Instead, we could have a society that realizes an educated people are intrinsically good, and that university should be subsidized more directly to make higher education more affordable for everyone.
Ed Hackett
SRU alumnus, 2003
I am amazed at how ignorant my college years were.
I felt, as did a great many, that tuition hikes were just the norm. Sometimes, I got mad at Governor Ridge back then for having money to build a new Three Rivers Stadium when the SSHE got screwed out of its needed subsidies. Yet, there is another option for funding university tuition.
I am now in graduate school in Vancouver, BC. It is incredible how much the provinces of Canada subsidize the cost of tuition, making it affordable for working families. You pay taxes, but you receive the benefit of a society that truly doesn't feel the need to place the full burden of funding on those who cannot afford it. Without those subsidies from the province, Canadian universities would cost as much as American universities.
In-state tuition costs for me during my undergraduate years at the Rock (1999 to 2003) are the cost of international tuition here currently. The undergraduate cost of tuition for a Canadian in the Ontario schools is usually around $5,000 Canadian for the year. On top of that, as a graduate student I pay the domestic rate of tuition (sadly, no tuition waiver).
I won't tell you how much that is, but let me assure you it is low. So while your editorial staff esteemed that members of Congress put aside their differences for making university education more affordable, all that means is that the burden of your education is still on you to finance.
Instead, we could have a society that realizes an educated people are intrinsically good, and that university should be subsidized more directly to make higher education more affordable for everyone.
Ed Hackett
SRU alumnus, 2003
