The problem? I know an RN. She graduated from college in 1980. Her classes were $30/credit hour and she paid for her Associate’s degree with her part-time job. She now wonders why kids are so lazy and can’t pay for their own education and why they would ever need help with student loans.
Took me 14 years to pay my student loans from >30 yrs ago off. I don't wish that on anyone.
1980.
I graduated from college in 1985 w two majors and a minor and very, very little debt. Tuition has become so ridiculously and unnecessarily expensive and the situation needs to be addressed quickly to allow these next generations to achieve their educational goals.
Her degree would cost her $50k now (w/out housing costs)
In California, in 1984 when I got out of the army, CC units were $0 per unit. Plus, books only went to the 2nd or 3rd edition and so there were always cheap used books available. Today's students are up against prohibitive costs. Of course, the US taxed corporations and wealthy individuals too.
Agree. Paid my way through 2 yrs college with a part time job working in the hospital. I also paid for a car and, even though I lived at home, paid all my own expenses, because you could afford to in the 80s. I couldn't do that today.
I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1975. With my parent’s support and part-time work, I graduated with no student debt. My son started college in 1991. College costs had increased so much he had to take out student loans despite having a scholarship and help from his parents. Things changed.
Yep. I was able to pay for the University of Minnesota as I went because it was possible to do so. My kids work as much as I did back then, but it barely makes a dent.
She’s obviously learned absolutely nothing about life
Did she not have kids? How would she not know what it’s like now?
This! However, I recently completed a program at my local state college and it was $3,000 a semester. They let you make monthly payments. A LOT of people in my city turn their noses up to this school because we have more prestigious schools ($$$$). My low class degree still got me the promotion.
So…no chance she was ever under consideration for an academic scholarship.
🫢🤭
Just curious, what is the cost these days for a credit hour! And are you forced to stay in the dorms your first year!
Missouri kids can use A+ money for Community College.
"How come my little sister gets to go to bed later than I did back then?" It's the bedtime argument. Very juvenile.
It took me five years to pay off my student loan in the 1980s, and I was still able to save for a house and enjoy life a bit. My younger coworkers had 60-mile commutes, ate ramen, and always talked about how their loans were eating them alive. And this was in a STEM field.
Maybe you should ask her if her car costs the same as it did in 1980. Seriously. A supposed smart woman can’t figure this out?
Welp, I worked my way through college on three pt jobs...it took me a while but I did it. Now I look at a friend's kids in their 30's one with a degree, one a dropout, one has worked all of 3 months period, the other lazy as sin working a menial pt job-both still living at home with Mama.
I graduated in 1982. My classes were $50/credit hour, never to exceed $250. Tuition now at that state university is over $10,000/semester. I feel I received a great education that supported my career and life issues. All schools today have huge financial aid offices. Reagan repugs.
Education should not be a for profit enterprise, but a society’s investment into the future
What is this called when a person tries to use their own personal experience from 25 years ago without considering the changes in costs whatsoever?
They're out of touch with the cos of education today I graduated in 2006 with only $30,000 in student loans
graduated in 2012 with 60k in loans at a state university (in-state tuition). Can't imagine what 2018 2024 Is stuck with
The costs of education have skyrocketed
It's obscene, really. When I first went to a state college in 1980, tuition was $4 a quarter hour, so $12 or $16 per class per semester. I was making about $3 an hour for comparison. Today, wages are not keeping pace with tuition costs & that's a huge problem, imo.
I was making 9/hr in the early 2000s in Ontario
I made $9 an hour in 1998 in Louisiana, and that was after working more than 20 years at that point. Wages are far too low, CEOs far too rich, etc. Tax breaks for tanning beds and yachts? That's ridiculous on its face and helps no one but those already wealthy. The U.S. is a shithole country.
Ontario's minimum wage increasing to $17.60/hr in October
👏🏽👏🏽
It isn't terrible...but it likely isn't enough to live in Toronto
Yeah, it's a start hopefully they keep it moving in that direction.
Federal minimum is still $7.25 here. In Washington, it's $16.66, I think, but cities have higher minimums here. Louisiana is still $7.25.
The federal minimum wage is a joke
Yep. Congress votes itself raises and exemptions of all kinds, all while refusing to take care of its constituents. It's deplorable. And corporations like Starbucks should be driven out of business. Refusing to give a 2% raise to baristas while their CEO makes over $110 million a year is WRONG.
It is the wage that all in Congress should be paid. AND they have to buy their own insurance. IMHO
Still $7.25 in many red states Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming
Yep. Not a surprise they voted for fascism, either.
Agreed! in 2012 my first job right after graduation which required my degree(& then some) offered me 11$/ hr. Quickly realized that's not going to even pay my student loan bill soon & had to scramble a new life plan(thankfully worked out). We need to fix it all.😪
and even that is horrifying to me, as I graduated in 1973 with only $3,000 in student loans. The cost of college has accelerated so much faster than everything else (except perhaps health care).
Isn't that the truth. Tuition, books, and all the fees. I graduated college with Associate degree in nursing 1997 and the only fee there was, an administrative fee per quarter of $25, and each credit was $40 at community college. Same Community college today is now about 30K for the degree...
yup, I started teaching at a community college in 1996 and the cost was about the same as you mention, now it is $197 a credit, plus a $20 per credit for on-line classes (and almost all ARE on-line classes). just awful.
👍
Also just the whole "I did it so why can't everyone else do the same thing" narrative is just stupid on it's face.
"I survived on 5 an hour how can they be struggling on 10" sir your rent was 250 and you had your pick of quality secondhand cars for less than a thousand also gas was like 85 cents
My kid has a $15K per year scholarship that covers the difference between in and out of state tuition, and will still pay upwards of $13K for the coming semester at a state university. She has worked 2 jobs this summer but only earned about 1/4 of tuition. That’s why it’s so hard!
In my county, 72% of all domiciles are rental units, bought by investment groups and corporations. Sale price for a 1,400 sqft home from the 70's here is $2.5 million in several neighborhoods. No average twenty year olds can afford that. The wealth gap is killing the middle class
It’s already killed the middle class, now it’s coming for the working class
I can’t ♥️ that but wholeheartedly agree.
My head still calculates prices from the early 90’s & then I’m shocked when I see today’s costs! I used to get 6 full grocery bags for today’s price of a half full bag PS most kids aren’t any lazier than previous generations. Some will be successful & some won’t! Like grownups
I made more money selling pot on campus than it cost me to go to school 😉
Who didn't?
She probably also thinks people with pain are drug seeking and that patients should not be allowed to use the call button after 9
I went to college in the GI Bill, I didn’t pay a dime and got a stipend for living expenses. My take away was that everyone should have that opportunity, not “why aren’t you joining the military if you want free college?”. I can’t understand people who think like this.
She's one of the #willfullystupid who just choose to stop learning/paying attention for whatever reason 🤷♀️🤦♀️
$30/credit means she paid $120 for one 3 credit course, here is an example from 1 Community College in NJ and what it costs in 2025 for a 3 credit course.
I chose a Community College because she said her credits were towards an Associate’s Degree and not a Bachelor’s Degree or program at a college or university. (Trying to compare apples to apples) 🤷♀️
She sucks at math.
Yup. And then Reagan came in and it’s been downhill economically ever since.
Her education didn’t serve her well if she can’t read or research the difference between 1980 and now.
Seriously. Everything is out of whack in this regard. The days of a summer job paying for college are long gone.
I paid for state university with a part time job and no loans. I worked full time in the summer to save and part time during the school year in the early '70s.
Then was a lifetime ago. Walk in the shoes of a college student today and wonder how they will ever pay for their education and make it worth the price.
And her answer is easy to find. She can go to her schools website and just look at the changes in cost. If she really wanted to understand.
So entitled… The cost of a college education today is crazy!
I put myself through a NY State University by working but also there were state scholarships, & a Basic Educational Opportunity Grant. Also, tuition at a State University was cheap. I got out around the same time as your RN friend with @$2000.00 in low interest loans. Impossible to do that now.
I graduated in 1996, had a full-time job the first year but dropped to part-time after. Still had to borrow $27000, which I didn’t make the amount promised after graduation and couldn’t pay so I joined the military and Uncle Sugar paid the loan but taxed me 25% on the payments.
The nurse is stuck in the 1980s
She obviously forgot that rents were cheaper, gas, groceries, bills were and it’s unrealistic to discount inflation.
Is she required to update/train on new medicine, digital portals, new devices, equipment, required training, JACHO, policy, new mandates? Not clear on how quals earned in 1980 translate to advances in medicine.
And her house cost $65K🙄
So, she graduated, moved into a cave and came to spout bullshit. Ask her to go back and get her master's degree because, you know, it's not that expensive.
Cognitive dissonance is a huge problem. Just like farmers who think they’re voting for the “rural way of life” vote against their farm and every mechanism keeping it afloat
It cost me $40,000 to convert my associates degree to a bachelor’s in nursing ten years ago at a state school ONLINE and I was required to convert it to keep my job. Student loan debt is crippling
She probably also voted in these fascists. Her wages were also higher adjusted for inflation for that part time job. Insanity how these Boomers and old Xers forget. Their parents had a higher likelihood of a union job with a livable wage. They’re the ones who destroyed everything. It’s so insane.
I graduated several years after this RN. My semester tuition was still in the $100s. One of my younger family members was shocked because, in their context, that number is $10,000+. Yes, a summer job could pay for the former (or much of it). Hard for a student to make $50k over the summer now.
I just left a similar comment. I met with an advisor last summer at community college and it was $10k for the first 2 semesters. He anticipated an increase after that so he wanted me to get applied asap. I couldn't afford it. Not even with all the grants or incentives for going for RN.
I often joke that, while I could be a pancake waitress 6 days a week all Summer in the early 70s and pay in-state tuition… you’d now have to be a pole dancer to earn a year of tuition over the summer.
Most people in America don’t make even 50,000 A YEAR. How could a student make that much money in the summer making minimum wage?
Pole dancing? 🙃
Big big big tips.
Graduated college 25 years ago. $1000/semester for tuition at full class load. Same college now 10k/semester. Food, water, shelter all up. The math is pretty fucking simple. Throw in 2 Republican created financial crisis and a pandemic. INFLATION - UNCHANGED WAGES= YOUNG PEOPLE GET SCREWED.
This! 👆🏼
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I paid $550 per quarter for tuition at Ohio State in the 80s. Unless they have a kid or some connection to current college cost, people are ignorant.
It seems like she failed math.
Has anyone sat her down and explained this slowly
I am retired now but I had some kind of job ever since I was 11years old. I worked at MayCo department store as a stock clerk attending Pierce Jr. College at 18years old. My total tuition+ books was about $80 per semester. Oh that was in the late 70's
IDK it always seemed to me a twisted path! Thought I could go back to school though could not afford part time work and school. Have a wife and 2 children! Best could do provide stable base for family. At least they got theirs wife included her LPN license.
Ugh, I know. I could pay a whole semester's worth of courses with my summer and winter break jobs, combined with PT jobs during the semester. That's what we all did. There was no student loan debt for life.
I was in college around that time too and, indeed tuition was that cheap. Then, I went back to college in the mid 90s and tuition per credit had gone up to about $200/credit hour. They're not lazy. They're priced out.
I’m in grad school and each of my classes is a little over $2,100. That’s about $700 a credit hour. My youngest graduated college last year with a full ride scholarship but her tuition would have been $62K a year. It’s expensive to be educated.
Let’s not forget buying a house for 50,000. Not 600,000 and a car for 40,000
Exactly!
People with privilage can't understand why others can't pull themselves up by the bootstraps
Also, to Jess' point, things were different back when her RN friend graduated. There was more State and Federal help as well as low interest loans to help us pull ourselves up. Sometimes a little help is all we need. Two successful careers lots of taxes paid to government. People need this now.
Or why they still live at home after they graduate?
I'm returning to college this fall after over 20yrs and the change in cost is blowing my hair back. And that's for mostly online classes! People who think it's not changed financially are just ignorant
I graduated in 2001 with about $10,000 in loans. Finally paid them off with my covid checks. I don't want anyone to have to worry about student loans for 2 decades or longer. The stress of debt is horrible.
Education should be government funded like roads are government funded. An educated populace is to the benefit of society like roads are a benefit to society. The rewards are much greater than the investment.
Yeah I got the same guff from an old friend whose daughter got a full scholarship because she's whip smart. Not everyone who goes to college is whip smart but rather smart enough to deserve it. Tone deaf.
I graduated only 9 years later, 1989. I went to a state university, completed 2 majors in 3 years, and even with working and grants, I came out with $20,000 in debt. Small in comparison with today's costs! The government should investigate university tuition costs instead of dei and politics!
Up until Reagan, universities were heavily supported by the government. Education was seen as important and access was promoted. After Reagan , that support was withdrawn shifting the burden to universities and therefore students. Add the switch to for profit loans and you see what happens
The problem isn’t that young people are lazy — it’s that the economy was restructured around debt and precarity, while some folks still think it’s 1980. You could pay for college with a part-time job back then. Now that barely covers textbooks.
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I agree. The state and federal government used to heavily subsidize education. No longer.
Went to SEMO in the 80s. Could pay for most of it making $3.35 an hour as a work-study student. Minimum wage has barely doubled in 40 years and tuition has grown exponentially.
Almost 50 years ago!
The cost of my education at the University of Toledo in 1979 my senior year was $1000 for the entire year. Today the same annual costs are $14,000 for a state school. Ohio doesn’t subsidize education anymore.
Thank the GOP for undermining state universities.
Because the greed wasn't quite so bad back in 1980. School/Education loans should always be interest-free. The return on that investment is always more profitable.
The cost is no longer $30 per credit hour. Cost of living is much higher than in 1970/1980. If she graduated in 1980, she would have paid 1970’s prices while attending.
exactly these people walked into a business with their résumé, and everyone was hiring. You can't get a good paying job here either with the cost of goods and services and housing.
”I don’t get why everyone isn’t like me?”
I’m a GenXer and deal with people my age who are like this. Even people who lean left are say crap like that. They view life from their (mostly successful white male) viewpoint. Even with friends like me who’ve had hard times, they still think everyone’s life can be as easy and successful as theirs.
Yeah, GenX really needs to acknowledge that we still got a pretty good deal for college.
I’ve found the easiest way to figure out where a GenXer is on the political spectrum is to know their financial situation and employment history. They don’t have to be wealthy. But if they are doing pretty good and have had a job for a long time, they are probably right-wing or lean that way.
In 1989 I went or CA Fresno my total cost for the entire year was 2500… when I moved out my rent was 250 split .. my parents paid for it… my whole 3 years … ..was 8000…for everything.. my daughter graduated 2020..total cost 48k... for tuition..CA does pay for low income…
I was there. You could pay for the most part by working through the summer. Also at that time depending on the company you worked for they would reimburse you for your tuition.
And the fact that you COULD get a job, at a company, without having already graduated was a big fucking part of it
Many people at that time went into jobs without a degree and could earn them while working. To say that now seems so strange.
Employers paying to train their workers with an eye to keeping them in the organization? Now that's just bananas
It only lasted until about the second Reagan administration.
I got a second degree that had more demand ($$$) through employee benefits ~1993. It included a stipulation that I stay on board for a year or pay it back. They laid me off, three weeks after I completed the degree. I ran and never looked back.
I think ours ended in the late 80’s when the company went “for profit”.
Yep
That was 45 years ago. She needs a lesson on out of control tuition and predatory lenders.
Our tuition costs used to be 2/3 of the bill, and housing 1/3. That has flipped at my institution where housing is 2/3 and tuition is 1/3. To make sense of it, I go back to Reagan and his tax cuts for the wealthy.
It costs at least $10,000 to get an AS in nursing at KC area CCs (2023 numbers).
The Gipper screwed us good!
Exactly.
San Diego 1985- Community college courses were $5 a unit. It’s wild to me how many old people have such dishonest and shitty takes about younger people.
in 1973 in San Mateo (just south of SF) it was $0 a unit. There was no tuition, only the cost of books and transportation. The burden on today's students and those of the past 25 years is unconscionable.
How were the teachers paid?
a reasonable question the community colleges were completely supported by a combination of California state taxes & local county taxes, so that is what paid teachers (and administrators and janitors) salaries, just like public schools. Taxes were a much higher percentage of affluent peoples income
This is due to political design as education causes people to “rise above their station” in life. Reagan didn’t want an “educated proletariat”.
Yeah, I graduated from college around the same time but now the cost of college has risen 300% since I went to college. No one can afford it now. Student loans are like a house loan. They can never get out from under it. The RN hasn’t evidently looked at the cost of college/trade schools now.
Sounds like my brother. Doesn’t believe in student loan reform… but is paying his kids way so they don’t end up in the trap of “all these predatory loans”… I’m sure he’s a closet republican 🤬
He must have a pretty good job to pay for all that.
Sort of. Grandparents gave money each year and the kids saved it all. Plus he said no vacations for 5 years while they are in school.
Annual increases far surpassing the general rate of inflation is not new. In 1976 - 1978, I attended presentations on tuition increases for the coming year. Every time, college costs increased at least 3 times the general inflation rate.
Given salary increases are supposed to reflect (though often they do not) the general inflation rate, which is a fraction of the education inflation rate, it easy to see why college has become so unaffordable.
And no, not one of the presenters could provide a rationale for these increases that held water.
Here's a fun fact: Congress sets the interest rate on student loans. Just so you know who to call.
My dad complained all the time about the cost of my college in the early 2000s. He got his history degree from the University of Minnesota and paid for it by working as a professional musician. Tuition was 399 a semester in 1970. Source: idr.umn.edu/reports-by-t...
I paid my way through college in the 80s, too, but tuition was only $3,500 per semester. Now tuition is $11,000 per semester. No part-time job will cover those costs!
pulling the ladder up behind her.
She ignores the fact how much college has increased since the 1980’s. 🤦🏻♀️
Yes they are clueless about the current costs.
I graduated in 2007 and I had the Hope Scholarship that Governor Zell Miller enacted in the 90's. It pays all tuition and some fees and books. That is the only reason I was able to afford nursing school. Nursing school requires alot of class and clinical hours, so I could only work part-time.
UC San Diego was around $3,500/year when I attended in 1978-1982. My blue-collar-working father could afford that, a house, a car, an RV, etc. No European vacations or such, and we only went to a restaurant on Xmas eve. My 38yo daughter was $35k/yr. Thank God my 33yo daughter could play volleyball!
I went to nursing school for free in 1988. Everyone should have that opportunity. I miss my patients. I’ve been retired a while now.
From 1983 to 1987, I attended UVa for $4K a year plus living $. I worked and got a Pell grant and graduated debt free. I went to med school and over four years I had to borrow a total of $90,000. Minimum wage was $3.35. To do that now is ~$180K and you can’t work in med school. NOT doable!
Not only have the costs gone up, it’s an Associates Degree. She needs to sit down.
I'm an RN and know plenty of others like this. 🤦🏼♀️
when I started teaching in Ky community college in 1996 the tuition was $45 a credit hr, and there were no fees. Now it is $195 per credit hr plus $20 for on-line classes (which actually cost them less to teach!!). The reason: the state (KY) gives colleges less percentage wise of their costs. +
so colleges have to charge more tuition to make up the loss of state support. Also, one of the biggest increases in costs for Ky community colleges is the cost of paying employees health care, even with them pushing much more of the cost on the employee it has mushroomed uncontrollably.
No one is mentioning that states & the federal government heavily subsidized higher ed decades ago. I went to a state university & graduated in 1983. I had state-funded scholarships, PELL grants & federally subsidized loans. Tuition was subsidized 80%, which is why cost per credit hour….. 1/2
….was so low. Now states subsidize tuition at 10%? Many communities had free two-year college tuition, as others have noted. All of this is gone, making college unaffordable for so many. 2/2
I cited this earlier, but in Arizona, state/local appropriations to ASU have decreased from close to 80% in 1980 to 41% in 2022. economist.asu.edu/reports/fina...
Me too. $14/hr for AS. 1982. I already had a BS in biology. NDSL paid off in a few years @ 3% back in ‘67. But I fully understand the problem. My son & DIL are still paying even with GIBill & 2 special needs kids. No help at all. Both in their fifties.
For the cost of one year's tuition in medical College in trumpieland. An Irish doctor is produced. After 7 years. 🇮🇪🇪🇺
Well ever since the 80's the GOP has been making it harder for normal people to get a decent living. They hate unions and the minimum wage hasn't gone up in decades. Adjusted for inflation it is $118 c/hr. Many state universities are $500 credit hour + our part-time jobs pay 30% of what hers did.
The days of getting a degree without loans or help from family are long gone. A semester of tuition at my state college was less than $300; the most expensive book I ever had to buy was $40. I was lucky enough to work summers in a union factory where I earned enough to live on and pay for college.
Being a college student in the 1960s, my tuition, books and activities fees added up to about $350 per semester. Today, fewer students, many new buildings, adjunct professors and, the cost for students is only affordable for the wealthy. Another result of oligarchy?
Higher education is costing us more and more per year, but the significant expense is personnel. Paying people to teach and support students. I'm not sure how we address the costs when we also want to compensate people well.
Also, state support for higher education competes with other priorities for state funding. As the federal gov takes more away from Medicaid and SNAP, public higher education may suffer as well if state funds are needed to make up the difference.
I can’t ♥️ this but agree wholeheartedly. 🤬
Yo my mom doesn’t understand why I didn’t get a college degree yet hers was paid for entirely by my grandfather who then immediately got all of his kids jobs using out of school (of which they all worked until retiring) using his influence as principal of a major school district in Delaware county
And somehow th RN is the problem?
BA in Biology/Chemistry 1964-68. In 1975, with scholarship and student loans I received a BSN. That gainfully employed me for 10 years while I paid off my loans. In 1987, with scholarship and loans, I received my masters PA-c which took 10 years to pay. Do-able then but would be impossible now.
Her problem is 1980 was 45 years ago. In 2070 folks can reminisce about how cheap college was back in ‘25.
Incredibly out of touch with higher education and the associated costs brought on by unquenchable greed.
They can’t afford their rent. Or food. Or gas. Or insurance. Go to college? Yeah, sure.
She needs to educate herself
These idiots who think “it’s easy! I did it!” are deliberately unaware that college tuition has gone up while wages haven’t. It’s also the mentality of “I had it rough, so no one else should have it any easier!” Just stupid, short-sighted, and cruel.
My daughter went through a 4 year college with a scholarship for all tuition (not housing, fees or books) and we still ended up with $30K in student loans at the end of 4 years. Sickening!
My son a teacher who graduated almost 20 yrs ago just paid his off. College costs are ridiculous. BTW, this was a state college.
She's still stuck in the 80s. I am thinking she was a Regan supporter.
My tuition was 400/semester and gasoline was 30¢ /gallon. Good times
$700/semester at Arizona State and I think under $1.50 a gallon. Also I never lived on campus after my freshman year, even then it was more than expensive than right off campus.
student loans became a huge mess of compounding interest and sales from one company to another, etc. Not what was agreed to in the first place to be paid back. And, the economy is being tied together with a very thin string between classes that's being pushed to the breaking point with high costs
In today's dollars it's $124/ credit hour but GUARANTEE schools charge much more than that per hour
Yes I went to PT school about that time. My $500 March of Dimes scholarship paid for a year of tuition. And then, it was just a BS so only 4 years. I paid so much more for my kids’ education!
Exactly! My entire undergrad degree from 1986-1990 cost me around $6000, including books. One 3 hour graduate class, starting in 2002 cost me over $1100. Have no idea how much all this costs now but know it's way more than all that.
I think both my degrees cost less than one year at a "reasonably" priced university now.
It’s called lack of empathy, she should not be an RN. Empathy is at the core of the profession.
Jesus-has she LOOKED at tuition lately? 3 kids in college now-2: BA, other getting her MA b/c she CAN'T practice(SLP) w/o it! and I just want to cry every semester when we have to pay/pay off their tuition. My other two-one DEF needs MA to practice so there's more $$ to spend JUST to get a JOB.
One would hope that someone with a college education would have the critical thinking skills to google the difference in getting an education in their time vs now.
Tell me who has the entitlement mentality...
I changed majors and dropped classes before I got it together and graduated in 97 with a 2year RN degree & 17k in debt. My 21 yo wants to be an esthetician- a certificate program. It is 22k… that is crazy
The minimum wage is a big problem. I was able to pay for my tuition and incidentals with summer jobs in the late 60's and early 70's.
Student loans are a cradle to grave debt trap. I'm so glad Biden was able to forgive a lot of student loans. A bachelor's degree shouldn't cost 60k-100k+.
It cost me 5k per year for out of state tuition in 92-94. 2025 tuition 43,100 per year. In- state tuition went from $750 per semester to 7k per semester 14k per yr. My community college went from $54 per credit hour to $220 per credit hour for a transfer degree. 8k per yr +3k for supples.
College should be free with an obligation to work in that field after graduation.
A loaf of bread once cost a Nickle.
The nerve.
AD RNs felt we were just as good or better nurses than our BS degree counterparts, and luckily, I had many good opportunities that didn't require a bachelor's degree. Things are very hard for his generation right now.
I still have 30k of parent plus loans for my son, who is now 33, and he is still paying off loans but doing well because of tax breaks and paying through the pandemic.
This was me, except I went to a local community college, and the cost was $11 per credit. I still had to have my dad pay, and he was able to put 4 of us through college on a middle-class salary without loans. 1/2
In-state cost for my son in a state college in Florida is roughly 25k per year for a decent low-profile school. Florida Bright Futures for him covers 75% of tuition and fees, so roughly 5k per year. The rest would be on him if we couldn't help.
When I was at CSUS, tuition was $500/semester. Books cost about the same. I could earn that in a month. My niece just graduated from CSUS. Her tuition was $7000/semester. The yearly cost = annual income on fed min wage! Change corp tax rates to incentivize higher wages!
I got my degree doing the same thing. Worked part time went to school part time. When I look back it boggles my mind I was able to do that. 3 kids later it boggles my mind that people aren't more outraged at the cost of college today. Shame on that RN!
Credit hr @ NYU then was $156. It is now $2200+. Undergrad per hour pay is usually minimum wage, which Fed is $7.25, & NYC it's $16.50. Working 40hrs/wk in NYC wouldn't even cover 1 credit hour after taxes. And it would barely cover SUNY (less expensive State school) semester w/room & board.
The state of Missouri paid my mom to go to LPN school in the 80's. It wasn't a lot, but it got us by, and started her career.
During WW II the US gov’t paid for a huge number of women to get their nursing degrees. For many of those families, this was a HUGE step up into a financially stable middle class. Paying for LPNs & CNAs in underserved states just makes sense!!
Except, these days, LPNs and CNAs don’t make much more than minimum wage - a looong way from middle class. You need a B.S in Nursing for that pay.
Certainly all our medical folks deserve to be paid more! But it also helps to start their careers WITHOUT huge educational debt. Affordable classes make it possible to get the degrees in the first place. We can actually do both: help folks while in school & pay better when they’re done
Agreed! I’m just saying time and money would be limited to help them advance. Ideally, the gov’t should foot the bill for a B.S or even for med school given how short the US is on doctors. A lower certification could even be completed while in high school in VoTech.
👍 My mom was one of those nurses.
Amazing! And proof gov’t can make a difference in our lives. PS: My dad was severely wounded in WW II. Those nurses and docs saved his leg! Thank you to all of them.
God bless your mom!❤️
Me, too! But it was Massachusetts
An older guy I know paid for his law school education at a pretty decent school by working for UPS. The rapid and radical changes to our University system aren't good for our society. When I lived in Denmark, a university education was covered by tax dollars if you were competitive enough to get in.
Bootraps, duh 🙄
😆 I politely say: fuck bootstraps ✌️
🔥🔥🩷🩷
your typo (if it was one) "bootraps" rather than "bootstraps" is actually really apt (and if you intended it yeah!), todays high tuition plus high interest really makes college loans a "trap" rather than a "strap".
Yes typo dangit! . I’m irritated and typing too fast 😂.
I assume she does not want the pay level she received in 1980… 45 long years ago. Yes, she’s likely blinded by cheap coffee-counter rhetoric. (Where skipping the waitress a dime under the cup was once an acceptable tip.)
Exactly she had it so easy
Again it traces back to Reagan.
Yes indeed.
My first college class in 2007 was $700 + books. My last class in 2025? $2000 + books. I could afford $700 a lot more than I can afford $2000. Still scraping the money together to finish.
My university had a huge remodel at all the commuter campuses... The downtown KC location sits empty. 1 class per week MAYBE.
They raised tuition 28% in one year.
Too often, us old folks remember our experiences without context to what the world "cost" then. In 1980, the basic minimum wage was $3.10/hour. So, she worked 15+ hours for one credit hour. The ratio today is almost 2x that.
I'm an RN who graduated with an associates degree in 1983. I now owe a ton in student loans for later getting a masters degree.
She must not talk to her kids, then. I understand my daughter's predicament very well
💯 I went to a state university in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I could work part time and pay my tuition, books, and living expenses. My husband had the GI Bill and got grants. Thanks to the greatest generation (our parents) for recognizing the value of education.
Except some, and their kids, ran for public offices and decided to pull up the ladder in funding public education. In AZ the percentage of our general fund that goes to our 3 public state universities has decreased significantly since the 1980s, steeply since 2009.
“Historically, the share of total higher educational revenue from appropriations of state and local governments was similar in Arizona to the national average; the share was more than 75 percent in the early 1980s.” By 2022 it was 41%. economist.asu.edu/reports/fina...
Yeah, the older folks really don't understand how much worse it's gotten for the kids..
I think some older folks choose intellectual laziness and are age-centric, measuring everyone else from days long gone. I'm older, in college and I know how it is. Even if I wasn't, I still know how expensive college has become.
What? Is she living under a rock? That’s ridiculous. We’re still paying off student loans for 2 out of 4 kids. We probably won’t be done until around 2040. I’ll be just over 70. Jeez. That’s depressing.
I worked part-time to pay for rent and food. I got student loans to pay for tuition and books. When I graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in 1981, I owed $4,000. I paid $50.25 a month for ten years. These young people come out now with a mortgage.
This is so weird. I know a retiree. He graduated from college in 1977. He paid for his credit hours and room and board with his job in the cafeteria of the Ivy League University across town. He now knows that even 3 full time jobs can’t pay for a standard 4 year degree like his in 2025. Bc math.
To add, good luck finding 1 full time job let alone 3
I only had to work 25 hours a week in the 80s-90s at resorts in PHX to receive full time benefits, health insurance(full vision/dental and minimal co-pays, premiums), 401k matching funds, sick days, vacation time, hotel nights, uniform with dry cleaning, cafeteria with free meals, ongoing training.
Now giant corporations make sure everyone stays under the number of hours to provide any benefits at all
It’s been like that for so long too. I don’t even remember a time where 38 hours wasn’t the max for a week of work.
🤬
My uncle delivered oil and went to college full time. Graduated without debt. It should be that easy or easier for kids today. College should be free. Education benefits everyone
I also paid for my own college education in the 80s working as a bartender. However, I recognize that the cost of a college education has far outpaced the inflation rate, and that I would not be able to do that today without taking out loans. Our tax dollars should be supporting education.
My entire college education over four and a half years in the 80s cost less than half of one year at Ohio State where my son went.
Funny you bring this up, I completed my Masters, never got a penny from anyone. I did get scholastic scholarships, based on good grades, which I studied by butt off for. I worked nights/ weekends, to go school days. I did what I could whenever I could to complete school in increments.
So while I paid for mine by serving in the military, folks need to look deeper. Educating our young people, including college is a national Investment that will pay for itself over and . I salute groups like the Lottery that use their business to help pay for education. We need more help as well.
Even in the mid-to-late nineties I was able to do this very same thing. A lot of us have college-age kids now and get that the cost is so much higher.
In AZ we know it’s in part because our R-held legislature has massively underfunded public K-doctoral level schools since the late 90s. We have just 3 public state universities and while they do great work, tuition creep is insane.
Why can't kids just catch a cab for a nickel and work in the coal mines like I did? We got 2 cents an hour and free ciggarettes, that paid for a house and car and we weren't lazy or we'd get the whooping cough. 🙄
I know my law school class of '84 was the last to have cheap taxpayor subsidized tuition. It was $600 a semester. The class behind me was doubled and it just kept going up from there. I do not know why US society stopped investing in its young people. Oh yeah Republicans.
Clueless. Classes were $30/credit hour. You COULD pay for it with a part-time job. It's not 1980 anymore. I know, I went to college during that time too.
Yes, I’ve seen that too.That so many people who benefitted from a much more fair system, will not see that the table has been increasingly tilted away from opportunity for those who are young now. It’s incredibly selfish.
Apparently the whole generation is doing it wrong and they just need to budget better or get higher paying more valuable jobs. Definitely no coffee or toast or bagels on the way to their 2nd job. They are all lazy. Elders think that because it worked for them it still will work now.🦖🙄
Sometimes the elders that were actually very privileged, aren’t accepting that they were, in fact, privileged and perhaps oppressive. They are the status quo elders. They need to be quiet now. Their plan is just not going to work anymore.
Even in 1998 I could afford to pay for the bulk of my classes while working full time. Then sometime around 2000 it became impossible. I still have $15K left to go on my student loans.
Early 2000s, the cost went from 24000 Freshman year to 36000 Senior year. 50% increase in 4 years. Thankfully I had some grants and scholarships. Even with them, still paying the loans off.
I tried in 2005. I barely made it through a single semester. Of course, I came from an abusive home and was a foster kid, so I didn't really have a support network.
I took out $60k 2002-2006 bc I chose an expensive private university. Loan payment mins were never more than $400 combined. WHHHYYY my 5 year younger sister in law took double (she’s a PA) but her payments are quadruple?? Things have deteriorated so badly for the next gen 😔
Wow
Yeah it’s very uncool. When student loan forgiveness was being talked about my firm opinion was “if they forgive debt the day after I pay mine off…. Good!”
Exactly! Getting those buried in student loan debt able to dream of homes, families, better vehicles etc etc would improve the economy so much.
Yes!!
💯 I was in school a long time ago - JD in 88 with what I thought was a lot of debt (the bank did too and refused a mortgage app) but what's happened is heartbreaking. Those who strive for education and to create a better life need help, not hurdles. Loan forgiveness is a no brainer imo.
Yeah I don’t understand the hate that was on for Biden’s loan forgiveness. These student debts are a drain on the economy. Both with paying a crazy loan and delaying young people from fully participating in the economy. It’s dumb.
Just because it was "Biden." I'm sure you heard that clip of the TX woman who said NO to the early alert system because... Biden. 🙄
I just listened to The Daily’s episode about Medicaid in rural areas and the guest pretty much admitted to some of North Carolina’s reluctance to expand after the ACÁ was “because Obama said so…”
Hard agree. The haters might also not realize these folks paid back most/all/more than the original debt and still owe infinity thousand
"Hey some of us other crabs have noticed that you were trying to climb out. Sorry amigo. That's a no go."
That analogy is pertinent to a lot of other things right now too, sadly (Cough cough 2nd and 3rd gen immigrants who vote a certain way)
I’m in Canada so it’s a bit different but at one point our student loan payment was more than our mortgage. Our oldest was 9 when the debt was paid. And that was with help from FIL. That was my husband’s debt. I applied for OSAP and it said no. Thank Christ.
👍
Exactly! That is a huge problem in the US. Particularly with their parents friends!
