Economic “Meltdown” – Scary Story in Honor of Halloween
By: Jamie
I always hated when people said that they “couldn’t afford to go to college.” Surely, if I made it, I with a single Mom, tons of loans, work study, a Pell Grant and a part-time job, others could figure out a way to do it too. However, after the meeting I attended this morning sponsored by the Committee for Education Funding, I am learning that today people just simply cannot afford a postsecondary education. It isn’t that they don’t want to attend, it is that they just simply can’t. And…what makes this even more depressing? It is just simply going to get worse.
Apparently, the economy is having a rough time. I must admit, not having any money in stocks, barely having anything in a 401K, no mortgage, and no assets (now I’m getting depressed), the crash of the markets did not directly affect me, and all of the terminology is way over my head. What I realized today is that although the market decline of the last few weeks did not directly affect me, the aftermath will.
In the next few years, millions of workers will be laid off and will have to receive some sort of worker retraining. The catch - most won’t be able to afford to go to a school to get retrained. Student loan companies are not loaning money as freely (or at all) as they once did. Now, to qualify for a student loan you have to fit a list of requirements and in some cases have a credited co-signer. I would like to know how you are supposed to have a credited co-signer when you are the bread winner of your family and you just got laid off. Or, how a student’s parents can be credited co-signers when they are struggling themselves and just want their kids to have a good future. Tuition will continue to rise, especially because with all of the students unable to afford school potentially dropping out, enrollment will go down. There will be fewer skilled workers and higher levels of untrained workers without a job to go to.
The next President will inherit over a trillion dollar debt, the largest debt in history. Programs are going to have to fight for existance. Today someone asked, “what do we tell schools, when they ask what they can expect in 4 years?” The answer? “less… less of everything.” I think that sums up the next few years for all us, expect less. Now that is some scary stuff.
