On Feb. 9 2012, the Florida House of Representatives passed a bill that will lower the age in which foster children are cut off from government support. The bill mandates that they will be left without aid at age 21 rather than the previous age of 23.
If you attend UT, chances are that you have some financial help from your parents. If not, they probably at least assisted you in finding loans and scholarships to help you pay for your own education. Funding college is stressful enough under these circumstances. But imagine if halfway through your college education, your only source of support disappears.
The chance of you completing college instantly diminishes. Even if you manage to supplement the loss and cover tuition with loans or working an extra job, there is still an immense amount of living expenses accompanying the life of a student. Housing, books, groceries—you name it. And all without the ability to work full-time.
“Given that college is potentially one of the biggest growth periods for a young adult, and that it’s expensive, the early 20’s are a crucial time for them to continue getting foster support,” said sophomore government and world affairs/philosophy major Zachary Iacovino. “By cutting them off, the government is essentially inhibiting their ability to attain higher education.”
The changing economy has deemed the term “savings” obsolete. According to CNNMoney, savings have declined from 5-7 percent to 1-3 percent. Emergency funds that were never really meant to be dipped into have become many families’ only means of support. And those are the lucky ones. Money being saved for college is rare.
A survey conducted by Harris Interactive with ForbesWoman and the National Endowment for Financial Education found that 59 percent of parents support their children until age 39. And that is only including non-students. If it had included students, the percentage would have been even higher.
The tanking financial state of the country has extended the age of dependency. Even those that do get a degree are having a difficult time supporting themselves. It doesn’t make sense for the government to cut resources from someone who has no one else to turn to, especially when the average age of continued dependency is so high.
Soon, young adults will feel forced into doing things like selling drugs and exchanging sex for the cost of tuition. Sound like an episode of Law and Order? It is unfortunately very much a reality.
Take SeekingArrangement.com, a website that calls itself, “The elite Sugar Daddy dating site for those seeking mutually beneficial relationships.” Many of the women on this site are students unable to finance their own education.
So instead of accepting life without higher learning, they find themselves a sugar daddy and exchange the price of education for sex.
Seeking Arrangement claims to not advocate prostitution and has rules against it, but the terms of each individual deal are strictly between the two parties involved.
An anonymous 22-year old from Miami talked about her arrangement in an interview with CBS. She said she looked for a sugar daddy after her parents cut her off when she turned 18. And the one she found not only paid for her tuition, but cars and trips as well.
After revealing that all this was given to her in exchange for sex, the interviewer asked if she was okay with it. And her response was simply, “I’m okay with it.”
As saddened as this girl’s situation makes me, the urge to pass negative judgment upon her is profoundly absent. I suppose the reason for this is that if I found myself in the same situation—picking between a lifetime of working minimum-wage jobs or exchanging sex for higher-level education—it would be difficult to turn down the option that comes with a brighter future.
These days, an undergraduate degree is hardly enough to land a decent paying job. It is the new high school diploma—nearly everybody has one. Graduate school if often required if you want to make it in your field, and yes, it costs more money.
If those with supportive parents are having a difficult time, I can’t imagine the strain on someone who finds themselves stranded in the middle of their education after being suddenly deprived of the only help they’ve ever received from the government.
It is things like this that drive people into desperate circumstances and lead them to resources like Seeking Arrangement to finance their future.
Florida’s recently passed bill makes a successful future seem nearly impossible for those who have already had a difficult life. The government is creating desperation instead of working against it in order to save money. Unless we somehow find a way to better the situation to prevent people from taking illegal (or nearly illegal) action in order to survive, the country will end up turning its own citizens into victims.
Hannah Webster can be reached at hannahkarine31@gmail.com