Students’ basic needs are not being met. The overwhelming cost of housing, textbooks, transportation, food insecurity, and household finances are deeply affecting students. Food insecurity is one of the key factors why students are going downhill. How are students going to be able to keep up with no food in their system? Students are not going to be able to study and maintain throughout the semester with no food. Students’ Basic needs are important. Students cannot focus on their work and school if they are too busy worrying about where they are going to lay their head at night or what they are going to eat for dinner. That alone can impact your mental, physical, and emotional health. Which is not a good sign for any student. Now what if a student does have a living area but it is poor? They may not be able to function properly, and this can also affect their physical and mental health. We should talk about this issue because this is a big issue. If student basic needs are not met, more and more students will become dropouts. We would want the number of dropouts to decrease and not increase. The more students who dropout, the more students who will not want to go to college. We need to ask ourselves what can be done to improve this situation, although there is no easy solution…
According to the journal “The Role of Student Debt and Debt Anxiety in College Student Financial Well Being” “Just over 50 % of students report student loan debt (Sallie Mae, 2016). Approximately one in every six students who is offered a loan declines it (Cadena & Keys, 2013). This is most common among the wealthy, who are least likely to need the assistance, and the least wealthy, who are more likely to receive grants and other aid. Students who decline loans that are offered report that their refusal to accept the loan was due to not being comfortable taking out loans and because their parents discouraged loans (Montalto, Phillips, McDaniel, & Baker, 2019).” Parents discourage loans because they don’t want to be in debt. Wealthy kids who parents will be able to pay their classes does not accept the loan and unwealthy kids who know that their parents will have trouble paying the money back will not accept the loan. Parents of the unwealthy discourage loans because they don’t want to risk being in debt, and paying off their child’s school loans for the rest of their life. Students who have their parents support has an advantage than the parents who are less fortunate. Not all students have supporting parents who are able to help them through college.
The Pell Grant program has ben successful. They help low-income students, (poor and rich families) get some type of money to help students. The Pell Grant Program is the best program that helps at reducing students’ costs. If you are accepted for the Pell Grant you will get a grant. Which means the money you will get you do not have to pay back. According to the article “Pell Grants and Student Success: .\Evidence from the Universe of Federal Aid Recipients”, “At a total budgetary cost of about $30 billion spread across 6–7 million students in recent years, Pell grants currently subsidize the costs of attendance of low-income students up to a maximum award of about $6,300 per student” Any money is better than no money.
There is also an program where students can work for their tuition money. According to the article, “The Work College Way” “Nine liberal arts colleges—Alice Lloyd College, Berea College, Bethany Global College, Blackburn College, College of the Ozarks, Ecclesia College, Paul Quinn College, Sterling College, and Warren Wilson College—have found a balance in offering access, affordability, and workforce development for their students, specifically those from low-income families”. These nine colleges are known as work colleges. At these institutions college students work around their campus and for their hard work they earn money to help reduce their tuition. Every institution is different and has their own way and helping support and provide for their students who are in need. For example, at Berea, the students get 100 percent of their tuition paid off, but they have to work and help out around their college and must meet certain other requirements.
Even though it is not easy, there are some ways out there that the government and people could do to help students raise money for their tuition and other basic needs in school. Basic needs for students are important for the health of students. Students cannot go on if they don’t have what they need. The more student basic needs are met the more students will be successful in school. The more successful students there are, the less dropouts there will be. There are grants that students could be approved for, there are jobs students can get around campus (certain institutions).
Citations
MORGENSTERN, ERIN. “The Work College Way: Work Colleges Offer Ideas about Providing an Affordable Liberal Education and Equipping Students for Professional Success.” Liberal Education, vol. 105, no. 3/4, Summer/Fall2019 2019, pp. 36–41. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=fth&AN=142398402&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Martinez, Suzanna M., et al. “Redefining Basic Needs for Higher Education: It’s More Than Minimal Food and Housing According to California University Students.” American Journal of Health Promotion, vol. 35, no. 6, July 2021, pp. 818–34. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=s3h&AN=150911906&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Norvilitis, Jill M., and Braden K. Linn. “The Role of Student Debt and Debt Anxiety in College Student Financial Well-Being.” Journal of Student Financial Aid, vol. 50, no. 3, Sept. 2021, pp. 1–22. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=eue&AN=153330615&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Eng, Amanda, and Jordan Matsudaira. “Pell Grants and Student Success: Evidence from the Universe of Federal Aid Recipients.” Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 39, Apr. 2021, pp. S413–54. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1086/712556.