Last week, Senator Jack Reed and Treasurer Seth Magaziner stressed the importance of filing the Free Application For Federal Student Aid, or the FAFSA. They said nearly $6.77 million was left behind in Rhode Island alone, with more than $2.7 billion worth of federal aid unused nationwide.

Reed cited a study done by Nerd Wallet, which followed FAFSA filing trends across the U.S., which said nearly 4,000 Rhode Island students never filed; on average each of those students amount to $1,709 in unclaimed funds.

Both Reed and Magaziner are correct in saying federal aid is crucial to college financing, and the FAFSA is a critical component of accessing that aid, but the truth is that amount of federal aid hardly makes a dent in college costs for most students.

Yes, every penny counts, but when students are combating tuition costs that are rising at a dramatic rate, sometimes the federal aid they receive amounts to just that – pennies.

The College Board, a national institution providing services to prospective students of higher education reported at the end of 2015, that for the first time ever enrollment at higher education institutions is slowly declining from its peak in 2011. Students and their families just can’t afford college, anymore whether or not they want to attend. The overwhelming debt students are taking on for a degree just isn’t worth it, especially for low-income families.

The College Board study said that tuition for a private, non-profit, four-year institution, tuition for one year across the country averaged $31,231, where it was only $1,832 in the 1971-1972 school year. That number is adjusted for inflation. For a public four-year school, with instate costs, tuition averaged about $9,139 where it would only have been $500 in 1971.

One could argue that the rising costs are attributed to inflation and that costs are up. However, the dramatic increase in tuition costs has far outpaced inflation nationally.

In 1971 it was feasible for a student to work during their off periods, the summer and winter break, to pay for their tuition as they went along.

In 1971 Harvard, one of the most elite universities in the country, tuition was $2,600, what The College Board cites would amount to 13 weeks work. To pay today’s tuition of $68,000 would require an entire year’s worth of salary for an entire household, assuming of course there are no other expenses.

There is an unmanageable gap between college costs and household income. Between 2000 and 2013 the cost of higher education rose by more than 87 percent where the median income barely increased 24 percent.

A Bloomberg Business study, released last summer, reported tuition has increased more than 1,120 percent since the late 1970s, “four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index,” with medical expenses increasing 601 percent and food prices 244 percent.

Student and their families are forced into exuberant amounts of debt, students collectively borrowing around $100 billion a year in loan programs, the outstanding debt is more than $1.3 trillion.

This system is, plainly, just unsustainable.

Students more often than not simply can’t be expected to take on what often amounts to hundreds of thousands dollars worth in debt, when they economy presented to them that they have to truly upon graduation, just isn’t made to support them or their debt in any real way.

Students are either opting out of a college education or studying abroad, where the cost is significantly less and there are programs set up to ease them from their debt.

Either by fleeing the country, or in refraining from a college education all together, America’s educational system is doing itself and the country a disservice.

There may still be hope. Jeffry Bartash from MarketWatch, a financial information website, reported that from January 2015 to January 2016 tuition only increased by 3.1 percent, the smallest increase in decades.

Similarly, Senator Reed continues to work on legislation in Washington to make college more affordable by increasing federal aid available to students, but they can only access this with a FAFSA.

Every penny counts, right?

Study: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loans/student-loans/college-students-fafsa-money/

Guide: https://www.nerdwallet.com/nerdscholar/fafsa/guide