The author, John Marek, is a writer and executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
There has been a lot of discussion about student debt lately, and while I have no intention of wading into the quicksand of student loan forgiveness and the cases for and against it, a particular refrain from that discussion prompted some thoughts.
“It’s not like it was when you went to college” is the standard retort of young people drowning in student debt to people my age. That is undoubtedly true; heck, the discovery of fire and the wheel alone changed everything.
Back in the Stone Age of 1980, when I graduated from high school, it was still possible for a high school graduate with no particular skills or training to get a job at the local plant, work hard, get themselves promoted to shift supervisor after a few years and provide a good life for their family. That career path, for the most part, does not exist today. Workers expecting to earn a living wage will need additional training and certifications. The good news is that getting that training is much more straightforward than in 1980. And it doesn’t have to be expensive or protracted.
If a program that allowed students to graduate from high school with an associate’s degree at no cost existed in 1980, it was an extraordinarily well-kept secret. This past spring, 46 Anson High School students graduated with a degree from South Piedmont Community College. Due to the timing of the graduation ceremonies, they were college graduates BEFORE they graduated from high school. While many of those students took those degrees directly into the workplace and began their careers, others applied those college credits to enrollment at a four-year school where they will potentially be able to earn their bachelor’s degree before their 20th birthday.
“It’s not like it was when you went to college.” Yeah, we weren’t able to do that. And if somebody back then did figure out a way to do it, they certainly didn’t do it for free.
I also understand that college today, in general, costs much more than it did in 1980, even when adjusted for inflation. My degree – tuition, books, housing, food – cost less than $15,000. That’s the equivalent of $54,000 in 2022 dollars which would get you a year at a “pricey” school or two in a more modest setting. Of course, if you already had two years of credits for free when you entered that more modest school, you could get a bachelor’s degree for the equivalent of what I paid in 1980. Unless you earned your associate’s degree from South Piedmont, in which case you could take advantage of the Gateway to Wingate program, which caps tuition at Wingate University, a private college just a dozen miles from Anson County, at $2,500 annually. That’s not a misprint. There would be additional expenses such as books and materials, of course. Still, it would be entirely possible to graduate from a private university with a bachelor’s degree before your 20th birthday for less than $10,000 out of pocket.
“It’s not like it was when you went to college.” Yeah, we definitely weren’t able to do that.
Looking back on my college experience with the knowledge I have today, there are certainly some things I should have done differently. My alma mater, Bowling Green, has a satellite campus in Huron, less than 20 miles from my parents’ house. I should have gone there my first two years, then finished my last two years at the main campus. I could have saved a couple of thousand dollars, and a bit of nonsense, that way.
You live. You learn.