The cost of college and higher education for Americans is too high, and it is getting worse as time goes on. At this current moment, the average cost for one year of college at a public in-state university is $9,750, according to the Education Data Initiative.

The average cost of college has more than doubled since 2000, with an increase of nearly 4.0% every single year. This is alarming for a couple of reasons; chiefly, this is a uniquely American problem in comparison to the rest of the western world. Germany, for example, has numerous public universities that are tuition free and accessible for the average student. The only expenses are the cost of living and a stipend to maintain the university, which is only a couple hundred euros
per year. The cost of higher education in the United States, as it stands now, is too high.

The other primary reason this is unacceptable is that the average income for a full time full-time worker is $66,662, and the median income is $61,984. For families, especially those with multiple college- aged children, it is almost impossible to account for an additional $9,750 of expenses, especially because

the average cost of living in the United States is $61,334 per year. The average American cannot afford a 15.9% increase on their cost of living. There is, of course, variety between states, but my point still stands: the cost of higher education for Americans is too expensive, and it continues to get even more expensive each year.