Higher education costs have come front and center to the debate stage for the 2020 elections and rightfully so, it is a crisis that has quietly plagued NH and the rest of the nation for the past decades.
On April 11th the NH House of Representatives passed their version of the State budget for FY 2020 and 2021. Unlike Governor Sununu’s proposal, the House proposal gives me some amount of hope: this budget gives an increase in operational funding for NH’s University System. In the past five years, Universities have not seen a significant adjustment in the budget; in the meantime NH students have borne the increasing costs of these Universities.
Our story is not so different than that of most. My husband, a graduate of Plymouth State University, and I still have over $200,000 in debt after making loan payments for 10 years. Once all is told our combined monthly payment is over $2,000 and given the interest rates for each account we have made barely a dent in this monster. We have been unable to enjoy many aspects of life due to this, have no retirement to speak of, and cannot save for our children’s education continuing this cycle of debt for another generation.
We’re not alone in this. In a Forbes 2018 article, American citizens carry $1.5 trillion in student debt. NH graduates carry $6.8 billion of that. The NH House has put forward a budget which takes good steps to lessen this burden of debt. I look forward to the Senate and Governor continuing these steps.
Jessica Wheeler
Concord