Addressing the Issue of Rising Cost of College Education

Application of Rogerian argument
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Rising cost of college education is a concern to the public. Recently, students have demonstrated in several occasions to protest against their tuition increased twice (Hernon, 2013). What should be done to fix the rising cost of college education? It is highly important for colleges to get serious to address their cost problem. The federal government has a crucial responsibility to contribute to ensuring that underlying structure of U.S higher education to undergo radical reform to bring a sigh of relief among students and the society at large. While private businesses reduce prices for consumers and cut costs through efficiencies, which improve their profits, colleges do not have such incentives. Private organizations have set a good example, which colleges should emulate by providing incentives to their students.
The cost of college education rises by 12 % every year. Archibald and Feldman (2010) explain that parents are bitter toward colleges that appeared having intention of exploiting each opportunity in the name of providing higher education to majority of students who cannot pay off their loan debts, especially students who come from poor families. It is bitter that in United States; higher education has become a rising cost prohibitive, a time when young people need higher education more than ever. It is a big concern to find that students of the rich families are getting quality education, but children of middle-class and poor families are struggling to access quality education. Whereas there is relatively minimal increase in family incomes, the cost of college education has increased by thirteen folds (Hernon, 2013). Though, college scholarships are available, they are highly competitive and also are limited. Therefore, majority of needy and qualified students are being locked out. Besides that, the government financial aid has not been effective to deal with the increasing cost of college education. Cohen and Carrie (2009) opine that the government provides financial aid, but the funds are inadequate to assist both local students and overseas students. Majority of foreign students have to dig deep into their pockets to pay school fees. Merit-based scholarships that colleges offer are normally faced with high competition because both local and foreign students seek to obtain such prospective opportunities. Apart from that, many people especially the lower and middle-income families struggle for their children to attend school despite the increasing cost. The cost of higher education is minimizing the number of students to study in their preferred top level schools because of financial reasons (Ehrenberg, 2002). Rising cost of college education and lack of job opportunities are impending uncertainties, which are matters of concern in the society. It is believed that the dysfunctional college system is what causes the increasing costs. Things like lax workplace culture, expensive amenities for students, and wasteful prestige sports and games are some of the practices that consume a lot of finance in colleges. Likewise, the federal financial aid system has been part of the problem because it fails to enable students to access quality education in colleges (Thelin, 2013). There is need to streamline this system. In many states, the government financial aid has been reduced. Due to the economic recession, states continue reducing higher education appropriations, and colleges respond by increasing tuition costs, imposing new fees and minimizing student financial assistance. Students have been compelled to cover bigger portion of college costs since the economic recession in 2009.
However, college administrators claim that their institutio...