College and Higher Education

The story I feel strongly about is the lack of access to education in our country. I came from a very poor family and went to college in California and paid $17 for the first semester, actually for student fees. Now I am teaching at Front Range Community College and students there are paying $5,000 a year. It is absurd. We are keeping some of the brightest and most capable people out of education and out of the economy.

I graduated and I have had temporary jobs. A bachelor's degree takes time, money and it takes a lot of work. I hear about a lot of people who have an educated background and end up working for $8 per hour. I have not had health care for 5 years. I fell down the stairs and broke my arm, but other than that I have been really lucky in terms of my health. Bush says he created a bunch of jobs, but they are not good jobs. Iraq has taken precedence over everything. People ask me what am I doing and why do I have the job I have. I answer because I cannot find anything better to do. The middle class is being crushed and the poor are getting poorer.

I am a sophomore at Colorado School of Mines. My tuition is $15,000 per semester. I cannot afford the tuition, so I have joined ROTC and the National Guard to get in-state tuition. I will graduate with a lot of debt. College is supposed to be the rope to pull us up. The only way I could afford college was by joining the military. I am in school now, but if my grades are not good, I may end up in Iraq. One idea I have is to give tuition grants and loans to schools directly to make education more affordable to students