“In 1974, a year of attendance at the University of Oregon . . . cost what a student working minimum wage could earn working 27 hours a week, year-round. That is a lot of work for a full-time student during the school year, but was not impossible and could be offset by more work hours in the summer. By 2004, a full-time student would have to work 46 hours a week to pay for the same attendance. That is essentially impossible, cannot be sufficiently offset by summer earnings and is the fundamental gap that policy makers either don’t understand or choose to ignore because it is too depressing and can’t be fixed. It is therefore disingenuous for policy makers to repeat the tired theory that ‘if I worked my way through college, why can’t today’s students?’ Because they can’t. There aren’t that many hours in the day.”- Alan Contreras, "College for Whom?" in Insidehighered.com, 3-29-07
1 comment:
Boy, I appreciate that quote. I admit to saying/thinking that same thing, and how true it is. Things are not the same. You can't work your way through college and go full-time. Thanks for sharing that.
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