As a college student in Connecticut, I am told that working through college is simply part of the experience.
For generations, it has been portrayed as an investment in the future, building discipline, independence, and responsibility. What has not changed is students’ willingness to work. What has changed is whether college can still be afforded by working through it.
Many students today can no longer balance academics with a single part-time job. To remain enrolled, they work two or three jobs, rushing from class to work, getting home late, and waking up early to repeat the cycle. This is not about extra money or professional experience. It is about survival.
I am lucky. My parents have saved for my college education and allowed me to live at home, giving me the ability to focus on my schoolwork. That perspective has made it impossible not to notice how different college looks for classmates without that safety net–some reduce the number of classes they take, others fall behind academically, and some even question whether continuing their education is even realistic.
When working is not enough, students are forced to turn to loans.
For many, student debt is not a separate problem but a growing burden that follows them through college. Even as students work longer hours to avoid borrowing, loans accumulate like a cloud hanging overhead.
Over the past few decades, public college tuition has increased significantly faster than incomes, shifting more costs onto students and their families. Federal Pell Grants, once designed to cover most college costs for low-income students, now only cover a fraction of total expenses.
Last year, while still in high school, I wrote an op-ed calling for greater funding for Connecticut’s urban school districts because I felt an overwhelming amount of responsibility to advocate for students who did not have access to the opportunities I enjoyed due to chronic underfunding. I believed then that education was the great equalizer. Now, as a college student, I feel that same sense of responsibility.
My ability to rely on support from my family is not widely available to my peers, and I see how quickly the promise of education fails when affordability is treated as an individual problem rather than a civic one.
To this day, students are told that if they work hard, college payments will be reasonable. However, this promise is no longer supported by math. The rising costs of tuition, housing, food, and transportation have grown faster than income from part-time jobs. No amount of dedication can increase what a paycheck is worth.
Equal opportunities and excellent education are both things that Connecticut is proud of. Sadly, these beliefs become meaningless when college turns into a test of how much a person can endure instead of a career path. Exhausted students are more likely to take on excessive amounts of debt, graduate later than expected, and leave the state altogether in search of financial security. This is not inevitable. It is a policy decision.
Connecticut’s General Assembly and Gov. Ned Lamont must commit to solving this issue. They are the state leaders who decide whether higher education is accessible to everyone or determined by a family’s personal income. If Connecticut wants students to achieve academic success and stay in the state after graduation, its leaders must recognize that the traditional expectation that students can work their way through college is no longer viable.
This requires greater investment in public colleges and universities, expanding need-based financial aid, and recognizing that affordability includes housing, transportation, and basic living costs, not just tuition.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, Democrats from Connecticut, also have a role to play at the federal level. State action cannot wait for Washington to change federal student aid programs to reflect the current cost of living.
Working during college can be beneficial. The problem comes when debt interferes with the education that students are attempting to earn, when working is no longer optional, and loans become the answer.
Opportunities should be expanded by hard work instead of being hidden by financial insecurity. Students are doing their part. It is time for the system to do the same.
Liam McCusker is a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University majoring in broadcast sequence journalism.