Letter: Student debt relief is ‘wise and well-planned’

Published 12:10 pm Tuesday, August 30, 2022

In the 1970s, my undergraduate in-state tuition and fees at the University of Delaware, a large public research university comparable to Washington State University (WSU), were about $280 per semester. At that time, the minimum wage was $2.00 per hour.

In 1973, the gross pay from 140 hours of any job would pay for a semester’s tuition and fees!

If I worked hard, I knew I could graduate from college on time and debt-free, without burdening my parents financially. That allowed me to assume the risk of undergraduate school, whose outcome was uncertain even then, without worrying about my parents or my future. Many students in my generation, including those who couldn’t have afforded an education otherwise, also worked their way through college.

Over the decades, education has been one of the best investments our state and federal governments could make. None of us benefits only from our own education. We also benefit when everyone is well educated.

Now, University of Delaware tuition for a semester is 637 times that state’s minimum hourly wage. Even in Washington, where tuition is lower and minimum wage is higher, WSU tuition requires the gross pay from 389 hours of minimum-wage work each semester. At all schools, mandatory fees — charged in addition to tuition — have also risen. “Working your way through college,” which many of us could achieve in the 1970s, is now basically impossible.

In my opinion, President Biden’s student debt relief for middle-class and low-income borrowers is wise and well-planned. Welcome as it is, though, “debt relief” is not a good substitute for affordable tuition. Lower college tuition rates would improve our nation’s future, by allowing today’s students to study without fear.

DAVE CUNDIFF, MD, MPH

Ilwaco