There was a time when a student could work June through August, save carefully, and walk into September with tuition covered. We did that on purpose, and then stopped.
When College Cost a Summer Job: The Quiet Promise We Broke |
There was a time when a student could work June through August, save carefully, and walk into September with tuition covered. We did that on purpose, and then stopped. |
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News for the America we remember |
A young person with a little discipline and a pair of willing hands could pay for a year at a state college with a summer job. Not every expense, not every campus, not every student, but the core of it, tuition and fees, those could often be handled by working June, July, and August. That fact now sounds like something an uncle would say at Thanksgiving and get accused of exaggerating. But it was true. |
In 1965, tuition at many public universities was a few hundred dollars a year. A student could wait tables, paint houses, stack lumber, run a cash register, or work the line at a cannery. It was hot work, dull work, honest work. You came home tired, your shirt stuck to your back, and your hands smelling like dishwater or motor oil. But by the end of August you had a little envelope of money, and that envelope could open the classroom door. |
I remember how people talked about college then. Not as a luxury purchase. Not as a branded experience. Not as a wager requiring a lifetime of debt service. They spoke of it the way towns used to speak of roads, libraries, or water lines. A thing worth paying for together because everybody benefited when it existed. An educated public was not just good for the graduate. It was good for the state, the county, the machine shop, the school board, the hospital, the newspaper, the whole arrangement. |
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Picture this — the next time you fly you'll be on a private jet. |
You'll enjoy: |
Private boarding — no more busy terminals — with zero crowds and zero long lines. Unlimited baggage allowance — banish fees for good. Complimentary organic coffee and snacks.
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