[quote=spdrun]Public universities were cheaper then as compared to incomes. At least partially due to (zOMFG!) … taxpayer support.
Was your stepfather a single parent when he was going to school? Were your cow-orkers single parents, or did they have a spouse to share responsibilities with?
Also, during your stepfather’s time, it was easier to get a decent job without a college degree in the first place. He was probably a union factory worker at Rockwell, not a Mickey Dee’s fry cook.[/quote]
My stepfather’s ex-spouse always worked FT as well. At all times when he was a PT student, he was married and his kids were grown. My student-coworkers were all married and living with their spouses and kid(s) at the time of going to night school, IIRC. I was in the same situation (worked FT and lived with spouse and kids) while attending night classes at City and SW Colleges (local CC’s) for about ten years. I earned about 75-80 sem units but never graduated because I am still lacking 9 units GE credits (3 classes). My accounting classes were four units and I got home about 10:45 pm. My paralegal program was a one year program (500-level graduate course) two nights per week (got home at 10:30 pm) and every other Saturday (until about midnight). At the time of earning my paralegal certificate, I worked FT and had minor children at home. I had a sister (now deceased) who earned a BS in Accountancy and a Masters in Taxation, all while working FT (married, no kids at that time) and putting herself thru college. I have a brother who earned a double major (Voc Ag teaching credential and Meat Science) all while working FT (single, no kids at that time) and putting himself thru college.
My siblings and I NEVER borrowed one dime for school or even qualified for a grant then – grants were $2-$4K yr back then (mostly $2K “BEOG” grants) and in order to get one, the student literally had to be on “welfare.” I applied for one on my FAFSA as a senior in HS and my mom made $900 too much money that year for me to get it. I then went to work FT right out of HS and made too much money to qualify for the grant (but was able to pay rent on a nice apt and buy a nice car – all cash). So it wasn’t worth it anymore for me to try to qualify for a measly $2-$4K in college aid.
Yeah, college was cheaper and housing was cheaper back then but we didn’t get paid as much either. My brother and I didn’t make anywhere NEAR $15 hr (more like <$5 hr). People did what they had to do back then to get ahead in life. Accepting aid was frowned upon unless a parent couldn't feed their family. Even those parents temporarily down on their luck had their pride and so were embarrassed to apply for food stamps or stand in line for commodities. Public school students had different-colored daily lunch tickets (participants of the Free Lunch program at school) and had to stand in a different lunch line than the paying students. The “free lunch” kids were stigmatized. (I’m glad this problem was “fixed.”) There were way fewer programs available and the benefit amounts were much lower than they are today and as such, there was much less incentive to attempt to defraud the “system” which seemingly appears to be so attractive today. It seems that there’s been a sea change in people’s views of what it really means to be “poor” today in the US and a huge increase in an individual’s “sense of entitlement.”
