_Jessie Staley is a freshman studying political science at MU. She is an opinion columnist that writes about student life for The Maneater._
College is difficult, if you do it right. It challenges your intellect and time management. It forces you to prioritize your job, finances, friends and schoolwork. Finals week is full of late nights at the library and about 20 gallons of coffee. One of the main stressors for today’s college students is the debt hanging over their heads.
When you’re little, your biggest fear is the green monster under your bed or in your closet. When you’re in college, your biggest fear is the imaginary monster eating away the money in your future bank account and your parents’ bank accounts.
It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. It causes people to feel and do crazy things. People have panic attacks and get depressed. People challenge cars to hit them on the crosswalk or on campus so their tuition will be paid for. Some people donate plasma twice a week for pocket money. It’s insane. It’s inhumane. Most importantly, it’s unnecessary.
The cost of higher education is one of the most debated subjects in the past several years. The presidential candidates have used that to get votes. It is on a lot of people’s minds. Some people never get out of debt because of the high cost for their degrees.
My father, a rare specimen with five degrees, is in his late 50s and is still in debt. He hasn’t even been in school since the 1990s. It is unacceptable to demand so much out of students who should be more focused on graduating college than just paying for it. It is wrong, and, as most people do not realize, it infringes on our civil rights.
One of our rights as American citizens is accessible, quality education. The Free Appropriate Public Education Act was created to enforce fair and equal treatment and accommodations for the disabled in public schools. However, it also enforces the right of every American to public education.
Most laws have evolved with the times. Recently, gun control and the way the Second Amendment applies to modern times has been up for debate. It is reasonable to expect that with the modern necessity for college degrees, the right to FAPE would also evolve to include public higher education, whether it is technical schools or public universities.
Education is a need, not a want. Limiting people’s opportunities to excel and progress is limiting the nation’s opportunity to excel and progress. Threatening people’s mental health and prompting rash decisions in order to make up for the debt is harsh and not any way to treat the future of the nation’s workforce.
The U.S. is a superpower because it is full of hardworking, innovative descendants of gritty, freedom-seeking revolutionaries and immigrants. The cost of higher education cripples us. It cripples the nation.
