Letters to the Editor: Get a grip on soaring college tuition
What we overlook in the debate
about student loan forgiveness
Taxpayers are understandably concerned about the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness proposals. But often overlooked in this debate is why so many college graduates are in dire financial straits and even filing for bankruptcy: the dramatic increase in tuition.
According to a September 2021 U.S. News and World Report analysis, since 2002 in-state tuition at public universities nationwide rose 211%! The increase for out-of-state tuition was 171%; 144% at private universities. In comparison, the consumer price index increased 54% from 2001 to 2021. To attend our foremost university in Bell County, Mary Hardin-Baylor, the estimated 2021-22 cost of attendance was $46,180 — few students could attend this and other Central Texas colleges without borrowing big bucks.
This crisis will not abate until university administrators and trustees get a grip on tuition and other college costs that are turning some scholars into paupers.
George Aldridge, Belton
It's up to all of us to challenge
white supremacist ideology
Yet again we read that a young man with white supremacist ideology has committed a mass murder, this time in Buffalo, N.Y. As with the shooter in El Paso who targeted Hispanic shoppers, and the shooter in Charleston, S.C., who shot black churchgoers, we see that hatred, combined with easy gun access, become a deadly combination.
Washington Post columnist Michele Norris compared the great replacement theory to fertilizer that feeds and sustains white fear. She asks white Americans to speak up when we hear other white people espouse this and other white supremacist thinking.
As a white Austinite, I think she's right. It's up to all of us to challenge the thinking that our nation’s increasing racial diversity is a danger. People of color cannot do this work alone. If we value our democracy, and the safety and well-being of all members of our society, we must educate ourselves with the truth and speak up when we encounter racist thinking.
Barbara Noblin, Austin
The law requires providing formula
for infants detained at the border
Gov. Abbott has criticized Biden for providing baby formula to immigrant children when "our most vulnerable precious Texans deserve to be put first." He sees it as "yet another one in a long line of reckless, out-of-touch priorities from the Biden administration when it comes to securing our border and protecting Americans."
Shame on Abbott for using innocent children as props.
Back in 1997, the Flores Settlement Agreement established the conditions which must be provided to ensure the safety and security of people in its custody which includes providing baby formula for infants.
When Biden became president, Homeland Security shelves were fully stocked and immigrant children were provided baby formula per the Flores agreement.
If Abbott wants that baby formula removed and given to our more precious Texas children, let him say so. Politics and the Golden Rule just don't mesh in his mind.
Carl Lloyd, San Antonio
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin American-Statesman Letters to the Editor: May 23, 2022
