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Clint Thibodeaux
Mary Hidalgo
English 102
27 April 2015
The Key to the American Dream
The American Dream was built around ideas of equality and freedom to pursue any endeavor and
one of the most important and an invaluable tool to unlocking a successful future is higher education.
Unfortunately, acquiring higher education in America is becoming increasingly expensive at an alarming
rate twice that of inflation (Samuels 1). A proper education, being the one thing that could serve to pull
so many families out of poverty in the long run is the one thing that is unattainable to those who need it
the most. Minimal hours for minimum wage is what is keeping so many students out of school while
only a handful of Americans are able to pay for college out-of-pocket without financial aid, loans, or
scholarships. Yet as costs are going up, attendance and graduation rates are going down as students
struggle to make ends meet outside of school. Having seen how the rich and powerful top tier of
American society influence and control the political workings of the government, it is important to
address the very real problem of unequal access to education and the effects of an uneducated public.
Higher education in America is the most important opportunity to increase social mobility that should be
granted to anyone who is capable and eager to achieve it without forcing them into debt.
Up to the present time, it has been possible for the American workforce to thrive without needing
a college education. However, as our economy is growing in multiple directions, a large portion of the
jobs being created will require a college education. More than half of the fastest growing occupations
now require postsecondary education and are growing and expanding at a rate faster than those jobs that

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do not require an education (The White House). Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported
that sixty percent of the twenty million jobs that have been created during this decade will require a
college education. With eighty-eight percent of detailed jobs expected to experience employment growth
before the year 2020, the fastest growth will be among those jobs that require a masters degree while
the slowest growth will be among those only requiring a high school diploma (Amdur). According to
data from the United States Department of Labor collected from people age twenty-five and over about
their education level, employment status, and income, unemployment rates for those with a bachelors
degree or higher were less than three and a half percent while those employed at this education level all
earned over one thousand dollars on a weekly basis for the year of 2014. For those with only a high
school diploma or some college but no degree, unemployment was at exactly six percent for last year
with a weekly income of those employed ranging between six-hundred-fifty dollars and seven-hundredfifty dollars. Similarly, workers with less than a high school diploma earned less than five hundred
dollars weekly last year while nine percent of them were unemployed (United States Department of
Labor). Considering how oppressive minimum wage jobs have been found to be, it is no surprise that
college graduates enter the workforce already earning twice as much as workers with only a high school
diploma or less. In fact, the White House government website directly states, higher education is now
the clearest pathway into the middle class, (The White House). Ironically, you have to be part of the
middle class to acquire higher education. The American Dream is built on the idea that anyone can work
to acquire a proper, valuable education but the facts do not reflect this notion at all.
Since 1991, tuition at four-year public colleges grew fifty-eight percent, a rate well above the
rate of growth in household income which only rose about three percent in the same decades. This is a
completely unbalanced rise in inflation that is absolutely not proportional to the extremely slow rise in
household income. At the same time, states have been reducing funding for higher education budgets,

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shifting a heavier financial burden to the student which has reduced affordability. Tuition costs started to
spike around 2008 and have been steadily on the rise (Oliff et al). The problem is that the rate at which
the average cost of higher education is rising is twice as fast as the rate of inflation which translates into
an eight percent rise in tuition costs every year, roughly doubling the cost every nine years (Samuels 1).
This indicates not only that rising tuition costs are compensating for the loss of state funding with
devastating budget cuts and more limited spending, but coupled with slow growth in middle-class
incomes, the affordability of higher education is growing increasingly costly at a rapid rate (Oliff et al).
Data gathered during recessions has proven that state and local funding plummet while tuition costs
skyrocket. Another illustration of this fact is that around the same year in 1990, the United States ranked
first in degree attainment for students between ages twenty-five and thirty-four but twenty years later in
our current decade, we are now ranked twelfth in the world for producing college graduates (The White
House). It is also important to consider that high school graduates from wealthier families are almost
certain to attend college immediately with more than half of them completing graduation within six
years while just under half of high school graduates from the poorest families attend with only about
twenty-five percent of them completing school (The White House). This explicitly illustrates the direct
correlation between socioeconomic background and household income to acquisition of higher
education. It is unfair and detrimental to humanity that bright stars have fallen through the cracks in
poor, low-income districts because of the reality that a proper education is not the same for all.
A very disturbing twist in the American Dream that has not been directly addressed is the
extreme racism that has terrorized this country since its inception, an evil that has haunted this nations
history and was most recently faced in the education system only a few decades ago. Anyone who was
not white was not allowed to be anywhere in public, even at school or on the bus, with anyone who was.
Even though reformers in the nineteenth century believed that girls deserved the same right to public

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schooling as boys, some even that African-Americans and Native Americans did as well, it was still an
entire century before a reluctant American public finally gave in to the true definition of equality, even if
kicking and screaming. Thanks to Brown v. the Board of Education, this racist nightmare is slowly
evolving to fit the idea of what the true American Dream should be (Hochschild 16). Now that we as a
nation have come this far, we have been making countless efforts at improving the education system
from various approaches but there is still a problem that keeps students away from college or even away
from their own high school graduations. School is the first place that so many Americans fail which
inevitably ensures failure from that point forward, but what is more alarming is how closely correlated
failure rates are correlated with racial structures and class inequality. Although this is the harsh reality, it
is ignored for the more favorable and fair idea called the American Dream that suggests that failure is a
result of a lack of individual merit and effort (Hoschchild 5). The sad truth is that this is a vicious cycle
that is repeated as the students are spewed out of the public education system, sometimes before
completion, and then are funneled into a whirlpool of low-paying jobs without benefits or insurance with
no hope of advancement or self-improvement for the rest of their lives. Being forced to take on multiple
low-paying jobs to make ends meet leaves no time or extra income to even attempt to achieve an
education regardless of the monstrous debt they would face paying for college even if they did happen to
have time for studies.
In order to make higher education more affordable so that people can acquire a better standard of
living overall, wages absolutely have to go up and keep up steadily with the rate of inflation. Better-paid
citizens can afford a better quality of life which would make education more attainable but it is still not
enough. Education in America is directly related to wealth, meaning that it is only feasible for upperclass families to afford a proper education without applying for grants, federal aid, or student loans, nor
without facing financial hardship, debt, or bankruptcy. This past year, only one in five families were able

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to pay out of pocket for one student to attend college while the majority still sought financial assistance
(Sallie Mae). A study released by loan giant Sallie Mae and Ipsos Public Affairs, a market research firm,
found that actual spending on college has decreased in the last five or so years but not for reasons one
might initially think; families simply do not have enough money to fund one student on the average
income alone. To save money, more students are living at home or off-campus with roommates and have
been cramming their schedules full of classes to graduate faster while amassing monstrous debt. Others
start at community colleges before transferring to a more expensive school to finish (Adams). Still the
point remains that the cost of higher education is outrageous and it is one of the greatest obstacles our
country faces. Bill Gates has vocalized his strong belief that all lives have equal value and that higher
education is a vital factor to success and key element to equal opportunity. Logically speaking, it is only
fair that everyone have equal access to higher education to have an equal chance at success that is not
based on socioeconomic background or household income (Lapovsky). This does seem like a drastic
idea but it absolutely can be done and in fact has been done in Germany. One by one, each federal state
of Germany has abolished tuition fees meaning that higher education is completely free, even for
international students. German governmental representatives from the regions have all commented
publicly, agreeing that price tags are discouraging to young people who want to learn but the country
recognizes how detrimental that will be for future generations. Taxes increased drastically, almost fifty
percent, but it is a sacrifice the German people are more than willing to make to ensure a strong, quality
nation (Veselinovic). In order to be a leading global powerhouse, a nation must have intelligent,
educated citizens that can be depended on but instead America is cultivating a poor nation that cannot
afford it. While Germany is one extreme example for a solution, there is still one glaringly obvious
solution that would supplement a budget in crisis so that funding is not channeled away from the
programs that need it the most, the ones that help our people the most. In Louisiana alone, Gov. Bobby

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Jindal has cut higher education by practically a third which actually equals hundreds of millions of
dollars. At the same time, an audit found that the state has paid out almost two and a half billion dollars
to oil and gas companies and actually overpaid other companies. The problem is that every single tax
break and waived fee by the state translates into cut programs that Louisianas residents depend on
(Aswell). The companies that make the most money in the state have the most money in the nation while
the people here are among the poorest and least educated in the nation.
As tuition costs are continuing to rise nationwide, many parents and almost half of students have
had to boost their work hours to help pay for schooling. Interestingly, more people now than ever before,
almost eighty-five percent of people, strongly believe that education is an important investment
(Adams). Unfortunately, American citizens are working themselves into debt to pay for a college career
and a huge factor is the widening wage gap. If Americans must risk financial hardship to acquire an
education that will benefit the nation, the government should not charge interest on the loans required to
finance it. If the government will not lower the cost of education, they should stop allowing mega
corporations to take advantage of the hardworking people with minimal hours for minimum wage so that
they can keep more money for themselves to make private deals with politicians behind closed doors. In
order to make education more affordable, we must raise minimum wage to keep up with current inflation
so that more people can live above the poverty line.

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Works Cited
Adams, Susan. Parents Are Paying Less For College, Says New Study. Forbes Magazine. 24 Jul 2013.
Web. 26 Apr 2015.
Amdur, Eli. By 2018, 60 percent of job openings will require college education.
Reviewjournal.com. 14 Jul 2013. Web. 26 Apr 2015.
Hochschild, Jennifer L. The American Dream and the Public Schools. Oxford, England: Oxford
University Press. 2014. 5-16. Print.
Lapovsky, Lucie. Bill Gates on Higher Education. Forbes Magazine. 21 Jul 2014. Web. 26 Apr 2015.
Oliff, P., Palacios, V. Johnson, I., and M. Leachman. Recent Deep State Higher
Education Cuts May Harm Students and the Economy for Years to
Come. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 19 Mar 2013. Web. 26
Apr 2015.
Sallie Mae. How Americans Pay For College. Ipsos Public Affairs. 2014. 6. Web. 27 Apr 2015.
Samuels, Robert. Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free: How to Decrease Cost and
Increase Quality at American Universities. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press. 2013. 1. Print.
United States Department of Labor. Earnings and unemployment rates by educational attainment. Data
set: 2014. Available at BLS.gov. Web. 26 Apr 2015.
Veselinovic, Milena. Want a top notch college degree but cant afford it? Head to Germany.
CNN. 26 Oct 2014. Web. 26 Apr 2015.

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The White House. Higher Education. WhiteHouse.gov. Web. 26 Apr 2015.