Since the Department of Education is the latest federal agency under attack by the dodgy DOGE goons, let’s talk about federal financial aid – in particular, student loans.

There was a lot of holier-than-thou pontificating during the Biden administration surrounding student loans, as Red-hatters seemed to be under the impression that folks who were seeking student loan forgiveness just wanted a handout to cover their poor financial decisions.

Boomer Red-hatters, in particular, frequently take the angle that if you would just get a job while going to school, make a budget, and brew your own coffee, then you ought to be able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and pay for college without going into debt “… like I did back in my day.”

Oh, really? Ok, let’s explore this argument a bit further …

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at the year I was born: Tuition & fees at public 4-year colleges averaged $512 for the entire 1974-1975 academic year. (You’re lucky to buy books for that today, but I digress.) The year I graduated high school (1992), that cost was already $2,349. By the time I finished grad school in 2014, undergrad tuition & fees averaged more than $8,500. That’s more than 16 times what it cost in 1974.

Using an inflation calculator (which is based on the consumer price index – or CPI), a dollar in 1974 was worth $4.80 in 2014. That means even if you adjust for inflation, the $512 in tuition & fees from 1974 would still only equate to $2,458 in 2014 – a little less than one-third of the actual cost.

So, yeah, you probably could’ve worked a part-time job while attending college full-time in 1974 and avoided student loan debt.

I mentioned grad school earlier because the frustrating scenario is fresh on my mind, as I was reviewing financials for this tax season. You see, I didn’t have the opportunity to receive a fellowship or Graduate Teaching Assistantship in grad school; I worked full-time and took classes part-time while also raising my kids. Between 2006-2014 while I worked on my master’s and doctorate degrees, I needed to take out student loans to make ends meet. That’s the simple truth of the matter.

Here's the rub: At the end of 2024, I had only paid down my total balance by 58%. That’s after an entire decade of chipping away with payments. Two of the loans actually have a higher balance today than the original principal amount borrowed. Talk about one step forward, two steps back!! This is why people are frustrated.

The irony is that even if Biden’s student loan forgiveness programs were still available, I don’t qualify because I make too much. Thankfully, those degrees opened doors for my career advancement, and even though it took several years to get to this point, I have a great job now. I still wanted to share my own scenario as a case-in-point for those who might be tempted to make snap judgements when they hear stories about people wanting relief for their student loans.

The same people who engage in self-righteous, knee-jerk condemnations about Gen-Xers’ and Millennials’ student loan woes and failure to save for retirement are the same ones who balk at raising the minimum wage – much less a minimum LIVING WAGE. They look down their noses at younger generations for allegedly wasting their money on avocado toast & frappuccinos, but in reality, the Gen-Zs who are in college now can scarcely find housing at a reasonable price, much less set aside savings. Granted, you could buy a house and a car 50 years ago and raise a family on one income. However, those days are long gone, and so is the purchasing power of generations ever since.

Hopefully, I’ll have my student loans paid off before I retire.

References (in case anyone cares):

Average Cost of College by Year. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college-by-year

Inflation calculator: https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator