College is Coming! College is Coming!

Middle-class kids used to be able to attend college without too much anxiety about financing their educations. No more.

When I went to Cal in the early 1980s, fees were less than $1,000 a year and the cost of living for me was less than $15,000 a year. Today, the fees are more than $6,000 and the increase in the cost of living in the Bay Area (and elsewhere) is obvious to all.

Law school fees were less than $3,000. Today, UC law schools charge in excess of $20,000.

The saddest part of the increase in costs is that poor Americans are being priced out of a good education. The ability of Americans to overcome poverty is being dimished in so many ways, but the increasing costs of higher education is particularly horrendous. If you have an affluent family, like mine has become, your children will be able to go to a good college without the stress of making ends meet.

If you are poor, or even middle class, your kids will settle for less. Their opportunities will be less. The American Dream becomes a little harder to achieve for a large swath of our society.