(no subject)
Representative Virginia Foxx from North Carolina recently stated publicly that she had no tolerance for anyone who complains of debt from student loans because she was able to go through college with no debt. Ms. Foxx was born in 1943, and got her undergraduate degree in 1968, so I just decided to run some figures myself to see if she has a leg to stand on. I'm using Federal Minimum Wage statistics and tuition figures for in-state residents to the University of Texas in Austin, a state public school. I figure that's about as inexpensive as you can get for an undergraduate degree. I'm also not figuring in income tax, since I don't have the tables for all these years. I'm just pretending that what each person made per hour is what they actually got to put in the bank.
In 1970, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education was $104.00. That meant that a student would have to work 65 hours in a semester to be able to pay their entire tuition fee. If you assume 4 hours a day, two days a week and 8 hours on Saturday, that means they'd have to work a little over a month to pay tuition. Now, obviously, they're going to have to keep working the rest of the year to pay for books and lab fees, etc. And this is assuming they live at home and have no room and board fees to pay. Still, a month to pay for your tuition isn't too bad, and working three days a week is perfectly reasonable when you're going to school, right?
Ok, let's jump to 1990. In 1990, the federal minimum wage had jumped to $3.80 per hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education had jumped to $521.00. That means now a student will have to work slightly over 137 hours to pay for tuition. If we use the work schedule they had back in 1970, they're now working 2 1/2 months to pay for tuition. That's still not counting books and lab fees, and still assuming they're living at home while going to school, so two months is starting to get a little sticky. They may have to change their work schedule to working five days a week instead of three, 4 days at 4 hours a day and all day on Saturday. That's 24 hours a week, still part-time and still enough time to study and do assignments if you don't do much in the way of socializing. But hey, it's school, not a party, so let's assume they've bumped their workload up to 24 hours. That bumps them back down to just under a month and a half to pay for tuition. That's not terrible.
Now let's go forward 10 years to 2000. In the year 2000, federal minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education was $1882.00. Ouch! That means the student is now going to have to work just over 365 hours simply to pay their tuition for a single semester! Using the 24 hour work week, that comes to over 15 weeks - almost four months. And you still haven't figured in books, lab fees, etc. Even working full-time, you'd still take over two months just to pay for your tuition (9 weeks).
So even working full-time at minimum wage, you'd barely be able to pay tuition, books and lab fees in a single semester. This is all assuming that you're close enough to a state public school to be able to continue living at home while getting your degree. Not everyone is that fortunate. If your family doesn't live close enough, you have to add room and board into all of these figures and suddenly it becomes impossible to attend college full-time, work full-time and be capable of paying everything without any loans.
And just for interest sake, I looked up what single-semester tuition would be for the Fall Semester of 2012 at UT - $4,794.00. Current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which brings the number of hours of work needed to pay a single semester of tuition up to 661, or four and a half months of working full time just to pay tuition, not even counting books, class fees, room and board, etc. That's nothing but tuition, and working full-time while going to school full-time.
So, Ms. Foxx, I think you're a fool. You're spouting off on a subject that you've obviously taken no time to research, and your opinion is making you look both privileged and elitist, as well as lacking in both knowledge and empathy.
UT Tuition Figures
Current UT Tuition
Federal Minimum Wage Statistics
In 1970, the federal minimum wage was $1.60 an hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education was $104.00. That meant that a student would have to work 65 hours in a semester to be able to pay their entire tuition fee. If you assume 4 hours a day, two days a week and 8 hours on Saturday, that means they'd have to work a little over a month to pay tuition. Now, obviously, they're going to have to keep working the rest of the year to pay for books and lab fees, etc. And this is assuming they live at home and have no room and board fees to pay. Still, a month to pay for your tuition isn't too bad, and working three days a week is perfectly reasonable when you're going to school, right?
Ok, let's jump to 1990. In 1990, the federal minimum wage had jumped to $3.80 per hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education had jumped to $521.00. That means now a student will have to work slightly over 137 hours to pay for tuition. If we use the work schedule they had back in 1970, they're now working 2 1/2 months to pay for tuition. That's still not counting books and lab fees, and still assuming they're living at home while going to school, so two months is starting to get a little sticky. They may have to change their work schedule to working five days a week instead of three, 4 days at 4 hours a day and all day on Saturday. That's 24 hours a week, still part-time and still enough time to study and do assignments if you don't do much in the way of socializing. But hey, it's school, not a party, so let's assume they've bumped their workload up to 24 hours. That bumps them back down to just under a month and a half to pay for tuition. That's not terrible.
Now let's go forward 10 years to 2000. In the year 2000, federal minimum wage was $5.15 per hour. Tuition for 15 credit hours of education was $1882.00. Ouch! That means the student is now going to have to work just over 365 hours simply to pay their tuition for a single semester! Using the 24 hour work week, that comes to over 15 weeks - almost four months. And you still haven't figured in books, lab fees, etc. Even working full-time, you'd still take over two months just to pay for your tuition (9 weeks).
So even working full-time at minimum wage, you'd barely be able to pay tuition, books and lab fees in a single semester. This is all assuming that you're close enough to a state public school to be able to continue living at home while getting your degree. Not everyone is that fortunate. If your family doesn't live close enough, you have to add room and board into all of these figures and suddenly it becomes impossible to attend college full-time, work full-time and be capable of paying everything without any loans.
And just for interest sake, I looked up what single-semester tuition would be for the Fall Semester of 2012 at UT - $4,794.00. Current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which brings the number of hours of work needed to pay a single semester of tuition up to 661, or four and a half months of working full time just to pay tuition, not even counting books, class fees, room and board, etc. That's nothing but tuition, and working full-time while going to school full-time.
So, Ms. Foxx, I think you're a fool. You're spouting off on a subject that you've obviously taken no time to research, and your opinion is making you look both privileged and elitist, as well as lacking in both knowledge and empathy.
UT Tuition Figures
Current UT Tuition
Federal Minimum Wage Statistics