Does the government help you pay for college?
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The recession that struck in 2008 hit young adults the
hardest. By the end of the year, less than half (46 percent)
of those aged eighteen to twenty-four had jobs—the
lowest rate on record.^1 Many of those who couldn’t find
jobs decided to go to college. This influx produced
another record in 2008: More young adults were enrolled
in either two- or four-year colleges than ever before. The
chief enrollment increase was in community colleges,
whose costs (tuition, fees, books and expenses) averaged
$7,000, compared to four-year public colleges ($10,000)
and four-year private colleges ($27,000).
But how could young people pay for college during a
severe recession? The federal government provided the
answer—through loans for college, chiefly Pell grants. By
2010, for example, nearly 8 million students received Pell
grants averaging $3,700 with a maximum grant of $5,500.
That the federal government would one day play so
profound a role in the lives of its people would have
astonished the founding generation. Well into the nine-(^1) The federal government began tracking such data in 1948. teenth century, the federal government failed to generate