By Jennifer Nagorka, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – It's graduation season, a time of joy and relief. It's also an anxious time for many high school seniors because, even though they've been admitted to a college, they still don't know how they'll pay for it.
This year, I'm serving on the selection committee for a local scholarship meant to help middle-income kids in Dallas and Collin Counties. The winners don't have to be valedictorians, just good students who worked hard both in and out of the classroom. There were 12 applications for four scholarships of $2,000 to $2,500 each.
The first thing that struck me about the applicants was how hard they worked. They've sweated through Advanced Placement Calculus and English Literature; they've volunteered for school societies and outside organizations. Several held part-time jobs throughout the school year as well as during the summers.
The second thing that struck me was much sadder. These kids have done everything asked of them, and done it well, and their reward will be mountains of college debt.
Although the scholarship was intended for middle-income students, about half of the applicants were actually low-income and a few were just plain poor.
One household, headed by a married couple, reported an income of under $10,000. They could have had some unreported income - maybe from mowing yards or cleaning houses - but I know their neighborhood. It is a tough area; a place you live mostly because you cannot afford to live anywhere else.
Another student, who had to leave home her junior year and live with friends, applied to a private university in Texas. The school had calculated her financial need at almost $29,000. It offered $10,000 in grants and scholarships, then suggested she take out about $19,000 in loans to cover the remaining cost. And that was just for her first year!
Obviously, the college didn't want her as a student. It's their loss, because she appears to have overcome some extraordinary obstacles in her young life. But I wouldn't advise her to take on that kind of debt her freshman year. And telling her to spend a couple years at a community college and then transfer to a state university doesn't seem like a good idea, either. She needs to get out of Dallas and start a new life in a more supportive environment.
Besides, big state universities are almost as unaffordable to moderate-income families as private ones. At the University of Texas at Austin, which costs about $17,500 per year, half of all students reported having family incomes of $80,000 or more. That's almost double the median family income in Texas.
UT-Austin's financial aid offers to the applicants in our pool was for the students and their parents to take out loans. Even the family that had experienced large uninsured medical expenses was expected to borrow $15,000 for the students' freshman year.
It's not news that college costs have soared in the last decade. That trend has left middle class families scrambling to pay for college. But some lower-income families are leaving the race altogether. According to one study, only 5 percent of academically accomplished, high-income students don't enroll in college. About 25 percent of high-achieving low-income students don't enroll.
Now that I've read these applications, I know what a loss that is for all of us.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer from Dallas.