Welcome to the United States of America: the land of opportunity and the place where dreams come true, or so it says in the brochure. The stark reality for many, however, is that with the unreasonably expensive (and still rising) costs of college tuition make it nearly impossible to afford a year at university, much less enough to graduate. From this, universities must rework their philosophies of the true, reasonable cost of an education and, for public universities, the government must reconvene on education policy and work out a solution that increases the amount of federal spending on these underfunded institutions.

While it is natural that the price of tuition should rise with inflation rates in comparison to the costs for older generations, the recorded increases in fees have vastly outpaced that of inflation, according to the New York Times.

This staggering factor produces an unaffordable cost for a significant number of families, with the average price of attending a private university being $43,648 annually, according to College Data.

This creates a difficult situation for many and forces several students to take out large loans that throws them into the pit of debt that grows with interest each year, making it even harder to live out a prosperous life.

Furthermore, even accounting for any kind of financial and scholarship aid, there are many unforeseen costs of college, such as travel, textbooks, supplies and any kind of extracurricular activity that force families to redesign their financial plans. Many parents who pay for their child’s higher education have to minimize other expenditures, with 41 percent even having to cut back on their own retirement assets, according to Time.

The nature of these actualities should not be accepted by those who want the citizens of this country to live prosperously and comfortably because, as cheesy as it sounds, knowledge is indeed power and it is through an educated society that profitability is maximized.

The educational system is indeed a broken one, with public and community colleges severely underfunded and low benefits and salaries for professors in spite of exponential tuition cost increases, according to Forbes. There needs to be a call for compromise and reprioritization of educating future generations, and giving those who want a higher education the opportunity to strive for it without running themselves thin.

The movement that needs to most come out of these increasingly expensive tuition costs is the determination to fight against it. If there aren’t enough people willing to pay such unreasonable prices to attend these schools, then they will not receive high enough enrollment to sustain such high prices. In extension, there needs to be a booming voice for the importance of education and a halt in the government from cutting these kinds of aid even further.