The last thing any college kid wants to hear from one of their smirking elders is that hoary old chestnut of condescension, “Wait until you get out into the real world.” Certainly, for men and women of a certain age (and tax bracket), their time in university long past, it’s easy to reflect on halcyon days and ignore the sometimes crushing facts of modern higher education. In the last decade, student loan debt ascended a mighty $833 billion to reach its highest point ever: $1.4 trillion (with a ‘t’). Per student, it’s an average of $35,000 in debt.
Those numbers typically get yawned over at the end of every summer, despite the fact that we could, in a national capitalistic fit, sell off Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri and still not cover that debt. More striking is how those numbers play out in actual human terms. It’s this human face that the members of RISE, a free tuition advocacy organization in California, wish to put to the issue of how higher education is funded in their state.
The full article is available on Vice.com. Please click here to read.
