The cost of a college

education is rapidly rising, far more than the cost of inflation

more than even the cost of healthcare, but I don't hear a peep about it in the media

The policy of student loans is a total

failure, I mean a trillion dollars of debt?

The colleges need to justify what it is they're doing with our tuition dollars and our taxpayer dollars

It is becoming more and more and more expensive to go to college.

You are seeing the potential of an economically lost generation.

And the average debt for a college senior right now is over twenty five thousand dollars.

It's time for congress to stand for the rights of student loan borrowers.

Because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because

they chose to go to college.

I was sitting and waiting for my AP psych test and I was freaking out

everybody's super nervous

My phone rings and I'm like, "Oh it's my dad, he's totally going

to make me feel better."

He's says, "Where do you want your stuff

it's in the back of my truck" and I said "What do you mean?"

And he said, "Well Josie" (my stepmom) "told me to pick

you or her so where do you want your stuff?"

And I was like "Oh. OK, I feel like crap now."

So I was thinking, "What am I going to do?"

It was always like you're going to college no matter what, even if

you have to scrape gum off the ground

you're going to college.

So what I decided I'm going to go to a 4-year

university, I want to go a big school.

It wasn't until later I realized, "Oh my gosh

I'm paying for this."

I have a two thousand dollar loan, a four thousand dollar loan

a three thousand dollar loan and then the eighteen thousand dollar loan.

And then I have a school direct plus

that's like two thousand dollars.

Federal loans I think since the late seventies

you haven't ever been able to declare bankruptcy.

That's across the board on federal loans.

But until 2005 you could declare bankruptcy on private loans.

The moment that they put the bankruptcy protection in,

schools had no incentive to keep tuition low

they started to go sky-rocketing out of control because they were

backed by the federal government and they would always get their money, no matter what.

It's different than any other debt that we have, you can discharge your credit card debt

your home loans, your medical debt; you cannot get rid of

your student debt. It sticks with you forever.

I would like to see tuition freezes until we can figure out where

--you know really open up the budgets-- and see where money is going.

If you paid more teachers to have smaller classes, people would

learn so much more and the teachers would care more.

So they have plenty of money but it's just not

to subsidize the cost of education for students.

I don't think the students want it

Every school wants to compete with each other to be the most

prestigious, the most beautiful school, when in fact students

just want a simple education for as cheap as possible.

If you've got three classes and it's four hundred students

each I'm sure you're not like, "Oh let me go through everbody's test."

But if you just put something into it, you know, put in

what we put in. We really care about our grades so for you

to just push us to the side well then why am I even here?

Does the money that students put in to their

tuition, do they actually get it back?

If you look at tuition between 1979

and 2010, it's increased 175

percent in private colleges and

220 percent in public universities and colleges.

The only problem is the ratio of professors to

students has stayed the same at 7 per 100

However the number of administrators has increased

from 3 to a hundred to 6 to a hundred.

So it appears that a lot of this extra money that students pay for

tuition is not going into the classroom to

improve their education but is going for administrators.

Several years ago I was holding up hearing approval

to build a fitness center at

Northern Arizona University, because they were going to charge the

students three or four hundred dollars a year

to pay for the fitness center. A gym.

Like a spa on campus.

And I said, "You know what? You want to build your fitness center then

charge a fee for those who

want to use it and have that pay for the fitness center.

Don't make every student on the campus pay this."

And the administrators tell me, "Well we have to be competitive. We don't have a

fitness center we can't get all these extra students." I said, "Why do you want all these extra

students? So you can build more buildings and come here looking for more money

and increase tuition more to pay for them?"

It's all money all the time. I feel like-- it sounds weird--

but if you want to get an education money shouldn't be a part of it.

We would probably have a better campus

not because it's beautiful but because we've got smart people.

You shouldn't worry about how it looks, you should

worry about if it's actually doing what it's supposed to.

We're trying to grow both the west and polytechnic

campus because there's the opportunity for growth

on those two campuses with the expansion

of residence halls and the new residence halls and the new rec center.

You see my financial aid you look at it with your own eyes. You see how much I'm coming

from, how much I make, how much I don't make and

how much is in my bank account. You literally have the paper in front of you

and you ask a kid who doesn't have a job

who has a thousand dollars in her bank account that's in her savings

and like two dollars in my checking account and they say, "OK

so we want you to pay thirty-six thousand a year."

My loans will continue to grow faster

than any salary or wage ever can.

It has cost me my family, it has cost me my

friends, it has cost me two potential marriages,

and of course I've shied away from having children because I simply can't afford it.

I currently make eight dollars and fifty cents

an hour as a cashier at Ace Hardware.

I'll be forty-five thousand dollars in debt by the

time I graduate.

I am freshly enraged about the

state of our education system in the United States.

I just called the U.S. Department of Education regarding

my bill that I pay on every month and I have been for the last decade.

After I graduate, I think I will have about forty-thousand dollars in debt.

Facing turning sixty-two and knowing

I have another thirty years to pay on my student

loans is daunting.

My goal you could say right now is to hopefully graduate with two degrees

in psychology and global health, get an

MBA with emphasis in hospital management.

I'm an administrative intern for Maricopa Integrated Health System.

I learn things like payroll

scheduling, scheduling protocol, working with

patients, meeting doctors-- things like that.

I kind of get a feel for exactly I want to do. "Thank you so much."

Selling tickets over here

I work for the athletic department at Arizona State University "If you want to buy a ticket I can sell

you a ticket over here"

I manage five houses and I also make sure that

groceries and all day to day plans are met.

When I was actually left alone, it was a big shock.

My first semester I kind of cried

a lot.

Not just because they were gone but because

there was so much pressure on me.

Every morning I had to wash my own clothes

make my own food, do pretty much everything

by myself. Alone.

I think of myself as a Dad.

They are my children, because every single week

I am responsible for every single thing that happens inside this house

and outside this house.

I have to make sure that my sister gets her books that she needs for her assignments.

So that they are done every single week.

I want to be an important person someday. I want to make some kind

of a change. My parents always wanted me to be a doctor

they always wanted me to have a big degree. They always wanted me to be

the best person I can possibly be.

When I think about it in my situation

right now, it's really hard to focus on always school, school, school.

Even though it's a really important thing. I'm working, I'm studying

I need to get good grades. You need to have a good G.P.A. when you get out of undergrad

because it's important in your job field.

Graduation rates are highest

at the highest income levels.

So regardless of your aptitude, if your

family is making a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and above

in family income, your chances of graduating at the undergraduate level--

seventy-five percent. If you're under thirty thousand dollars

it's twenty-five.

Just to be honest, I would not be able to do anything if it wasn't for the scholarship.

It's my lifeline right now. It means everything to me.

If someone hears my story, one of my teachers hears my story and she says

"Why are you in class? You should be out working or something."

Study and get A's. You want to get a great job? Leave college

with a G.P.A. that's high. I don't know what the answer is I don't want to deny anybody the right

to go to college, but I think everybody should understand

what they're getting into and what they're going to leave with.

It's not the dream that college was in the

1960's when I went to college when it was a true

ticket to prosperity. Things have changed.

My loans me have caused me to have to fight every single day to be able

to pay my bills. If I didn't have that student loan, I would be able to go out

in search for a new job. I think we need to listen to the millions because

we need to be heard.

I don't think it's fair that education is placed on the

lower end of the spectrum when it comes to being recognized

as something that everyone needs.

They haven't been able to help me in any way.

I looked into their hardship plans and their

disability deferment plans and

for one reason or another I was always

ineligible and that begs the question: If someone with

brain cancer is ineligible for the hardship program then

who the hell is eligible for the hardship program?

I'll definitely be over a hundred thousand dollars in debt by the time

I graduate so I'll be paying that off for the rest of my life.

When I was a junior, my mom got diagnosed with cancer.

Junior year I'd be going to school and I would drive to

Mayo Clinic after school to spend

time with my mom, that's just what my daily routine was.

So then my senior year came...

OK.

So you know those nightmares you used to have of, well I always

had them, of both my parents dying? That was the

biggest nightmare that I'd ever have and that my mom would die too that was

the scariest thing for me to go through.

Before I graduated-- it was April 29th--

I had my whole family out there and

she had gone through a couple surgeries, emergency surgeries, because she

had internal bleeding from one of her biopsies.

So my whole family flew out there and

everybody got to say their goodbyes and

my sister and I were there in the room when she took her last breath.

I wanted her to go knowing that I could

achieve what I wanted and that

I was going to be OK.

That's just what I kept repeating to her, "I'm going to be fine.

You need to be OK."

I had to pack up in a few days and put it in storage, everything.

And that's when I was living in the dorms

that was the hardest time because I didn't have anywhere to go.

I didn't have any place to call home.

I didn't have parents. It was all bad.

And that was the first time I was like, "You know I need to get a job

I need to be able to support myself. I'm never ever

going to put my family through what I was put through when it comes to finances.