#  A Commencement Address for the Most Indebted Class Ever

     Details    Chuck Collins   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         May 23 2016      [  ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/May-2016/042w.png)    ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/important-reads/11165-a-commencement-address-for-the-most-indebted-class-ever)

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> EDITOR’S PICK--Congratulations, college graduates! As you enter the next phase of life, you and your parents should be proud of your achievements.
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> But, I’m sorry to say, they’ve come at a price: The system is trying to squeeze you harder than any previous generation.
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> Many baby boomers, perhaps including your parents, benefited from a time when higher education was seen as a shared social responsibility. Between 1945 and 1975, tens of millions of them graduated from college with little or no debt.
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> But now, tens of millions of you are graduating with astounding levels of debt.
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> This year, seven in 10 graduating seniors borrowed for their educations. Their average debt is now over $37,000 — the highest figure for any class ever.
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> Already, some 43 percent of borrowers — together owing $200 billion — have either stopped making payments or are behind on their student loans. Millions are in default.
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> This debt casts a long shadow on the finances of graduates. During the last quarter of 2015 alone, the Education Department moved to garnish $176 million in wages.
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> There’s no economic benefit to this system whatsoever. Indebted students delay starting families and buying houses, experience compounding economic distress, and are less inclined to take entrepreneurial risks.
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> One driver of the change from your parents’ generation has been tax cuts for the wealthy, which have led to cuts in higher education budgets. Forty-seven states now spend less per student on higher education than they did before the 2008 economic recession.
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> In effect, we’re shifting tax obligations away from multi-millionaires and onto states and middle-income taxpayers. And that’s led colleges to rely on higher tuition costs and fees.
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> In 2005, for instance, Congress stopped sharing revenue from the estate tax — a levy on inherited wealth exclusively paid by multi-million dollar estates — with the states. Most state legislatures failed to replace it at the state level, costing them billions in revenue over the last decade.
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> In fact, the 32 states that let their estate taxes expire are foregoing between $3 to $6 billion a year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates. The resulting tax benefits have gone entirely to multi-millionaires and billionaires — and contributed to tuition increases.
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> For example, California used to raise almost $1 billion a year in revenue from its state-level estate tax. Now that figure is down to zero. And since 2008, average tuition has increased over $3,500 at four-year public colleges and universities in the state.
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> Florida, meanwhile, lost $700 million a year — and raised tuition nearly $2,500. Michigan lost $155 million a year and hiked average tuition $2,200.
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> But it doesn’t have to be this way. Washington State went the opposite route.
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> Washington taxes wealthy estates and dedicates the $150 million it raises each year to an education legacy trust account, which supports K-12 education and the state’s community college system. Other states should follow this model, and students and parents should take the lead in demanding it.
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> Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said at a Philadelphia town hall that there’s one thing he’s 100 percent certain about.
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> If millions of young people stood up and said they’re “sick and tired of leaving college $30,000, $50,000, $70,000 in debt, that they want public colleges and universities tuition-free,” he predicted, “that is exactly what would happen.”
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> Sanders is right: Imagine a political movement made up of the 40 million households that currently hold $1.2 trillion in debt.
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> If we stood up and pressed for policies to eliminate millionaire tax breaks and dedicate the revenue to debt-free education, it would change the face of America.
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> Graduates, let’s get to work.
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> *(Chuck Collins directs the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. Provided CityWatch by [OtherWords.org.](http://OtherWords.org))*
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> *-cw*

  - [  Previous Article **Tax Dodgin’ Silicon Valley and What It Means to You and Me** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11180:tax-dodgin-silicon-valley-and-what-it-means-to-you-and-me&catid=9)
- [  Next Article **The Battle for the Soul of American Higher Education: Student Protests vs. the Corporate University**  ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11161:the-battle-for-the-soul-of-american-higher-education-student-protests-vs-the-corporate-university&catid=9)
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