Money Matters: College and Affordability

My name is Scott Winstead is the founder of MyElearningWorld.com. His expertise on student loan debt and higher education has been featured on Yahoo Finance, FOX Business, MSN and more. 

He has authored multiple reports about college financing, including:

• States Most Interested in Student Loan Forgiveness - Google Search Trends shows interest in student debt cancellation has skyrocketed post pandemic. States most interested in debt cancellation include South Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Idaho, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
• Cost of College Has Risen 5X the Rate of Inflation Last 50 years- Real average wages have barely budged in 50 years while tuition has skyrocketed, causing student debt to snowball. If the cost of college had increased consistently with the U.S. inflation rate over the last 50 years, students would only be paying anywhere from roughly $10,000 to $20,000 per year instead of $23,000 to $52,000 to attend public or private universities respectively. 
• Pandemic College Enrollment Decline Lifetime Income Lost- Covid resulted in a nearly 7% decline in college enrollment, as students opted to stay home and not pay outrageous fees and take on debt for online-only classes. We found that the total potential loss of lifetime earnings by the over 1 million students skipping out on college could exceed $1 trillion.

I had a chance to interview him to learn more.

Why is it important to make college affordable?

It's important for many reasons, most notably that people are going into crippling debt to obtain degrees. So once they graduate, they're drowning trying to pay back all they borrowed. It's also worth noting that college tuition is on top of all the other expenses a college student faces. For example, we just put out a study showing that the average student will spend $2,352 on groceries this school year and $2,955 eating out. Inflation is hurting everyone, college students included.  

How does the opportunity to go to college affect people their whole lives?

Historically, people who graduate college make more money over the span of their lifetimes. We had a report that showed the pandemic enrollment decline could lead to $1 Trillion in lifetime income in the US.

Why is college so much harder to afford now than it used to be?

Because the costs have been rising at an astronomical rate. In the last 50 years, the cost of going to college has risen at 5X the rate of inflation. Meanwhile real average wages have been basically stagnant (report). It's probably not a coincidence that tuition started skyrocketing not long after the government started guaranteeing student loans back in the mid-to-late 60's. 

How do student loan forgiveness programs fit into the picture?

Student loan forgiveness offers temporary relief, but it doesn't do anything to fix the underlying problem. Until the government takes action to deal with rising tuition, students will continue taking out larger and larger loans to pay for the exorbitant costs of college. And in a few years, we'll be right back here with people saying we need to pass another round of student loan forgiveness.