U of MN Tuition Too High

Tuition has increased at the U of MN much faster than wages for most lower middle class Americans. That means that folks like myself and my family cannot afford to go to college anymore. We make too much to get aid and too little to be able to pay ourselves. My children have had to work almost full time while going to college, but they have avoided the huge student loans that many students take out.

The tuition has jumped 73% in five years. Wouldn't it be great if our salaries increased that fast? It is expected that tuition will continue to go up for at least the next two years at the rate of 5.5% per year for a total increase of 84% in seven years. If you were making $50,000 per year eight years ago and had an 84% increase, you would be making $92,ooo per year now and could easily pay the tuition increase. But then that is just a daydream.

When I started college in 1964 tuition was $165 per year! Books ran about the same amount so you could go to school for about $330 a year. Now, one book can easily cost you the amount I used to pay per semester. Tuition alone is 49 times the amount I used to pay. Average Twin Cities tuition and fees is $8,029 per year. If you made $2 per hour in 1964 and had a 49 x increase in salary you would be making $98 per hour now !

We are clearly developing a worker bee class of people through the public schools but our universities are clearly eliminating the middle class. Soon it will just be rich bosses and worker bees again like it is in most third world countries. Paganism has a price.