Dear Senator Graham,
I hope someone on your staff sees this. If not, I hope that readers in South Carolina send it to you. This is an important message from one of your constituents.
She writes:
I had an opportunity to listen to Senator Lindsey Graham talk about how he lifted himself up and became the Senator from SC he is today. He said both his parents died before he began college.
But he failed to say his social security benefits (based on the death of his parents), at that time, continued through age 21 and that full-time tuition at a flagship state college in SC was roughly $287.00 per semester and $596.00 per semester, if you lived in a dorm (no food plan). This included University provide healthcare.
Back then it was easy to self-fund college on social security benefits and summer and part-time jobs. I know I did it, too. I earned $20.00- 30.00 per day waiting tables during the breakfast shift at Howard Johnson. My University even held my check for several weeks at that time. (My father was killed in Vietnam so I also had $330.00 per month VA but they paid really late during the semester). My husband also self-funded working a work study job and obtaining student loans. He left college as a chemical engineer with a $55.00 per month student loan.
He could not have done it today. Nor could I. Nor could my husband. It amazes me the disconnect of our politicians with the plight of our young people today. Comparing his experience of “lifting himself up by his bootstraps” with what our kids face today is ludicrous.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Off topic, but I thought you’d enjoy this: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/north-korea-offers-unconditional-surrender-after-mike-pence-angrily-squints-at-it?mbid=nl_041717%20Borowitz%20Newsletter%20(1)&CNDID=41906131&spMailingID=10835491&spUserID=MTMzMTg1NTQxMzA0S0&spJobID=1141321327&spReportId=MTE0MTMyMTMyNwS2
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The easiest way to explain the significant change in circumstances is to compare college costs vs. starting salary. I went out of state, yet still paid only about $24k for four years of college ($1500 tuition & $1500 room and board per semester). I graduated with a Masters degree. My starting salary was $26,700. Compare today’s starting salaries to the cost of four years of college. Not even close.
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Too many politicians today live an a jaded world of luxury and they have done so for so long that have absolutely no clue as to what it is like to live as a middle class or poor person in America. It is beyond their comprehension as to what it takes for so many Americans just to get by on a daily basis. The worse example of this type of politician is Donald Trump.
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I did it too and I couldn’t do it today. I did it without taking the ACT or the SAT and without a standardized test slotting me into remedial courses.
I feel bad for young people. The truth is they’re not “coddled” at all. They have it much harder than my generation did.
I was also lucky enough to attend public schools at a time when politicians still supported public schools instead of getting elected bashing them.
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I have a similar history about admission to college without the various tests now required. My high school grades were decent and included some college prep courses.
I attended a state college in Florida. For four years, I had part time work, one small scholarsip, and a state loan from Florida that could be repaid in full by teaching in Florida for each year I had the loan. No loan repayment needed. Other wise each $1500 a year loan would have been due with 5% interest from the date of the loan. That loan program solved Florida’s teacher shortage and went a long way in paying for my unerraduate degree.
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The oligarcgy really want to enslave the rest of us. They need slaves, because they cannot do their own work. Look at them and how pathetic they are. Thus, this dissing of public schools for an endless stream of slaves.
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OOPS OLIGARCHY….sorry.
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As a former Marine and Vietnam vet, I left military service in 1968 and went to college on the GI Bill. The monthly payments from the GI Bill were less than $400 and I also worked part time for minimum wage in a Lucky Supermarket bagging groceries. I was in my first marriage and my wife worked a full-time job in a bank, but our combined incomes were not enough and eventually, I took out $7k in student loans that I would eventually work two jobs, days as a classroom teacher and nights and weekends as a maitre d’ in a restaurant/nightclub, to pay off. I have never felt comfortable owing money to anyone if I can help it.
I could not afford a private university. I started out at a 2-year community college where I earned an AS degree. Next, I transferred to state universities where I earned a BA in journalism. Later, while teaching and working that 2nd night and weekend job, I went back to college part time to earn an MFA — all earned in state colleges.
Without the financial help from the GI Bill and those student loans, I do not think I would have made it.
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I really would like to see Valerie Strauss pick this letter up. How about tweeting a link if it hasn’t already been done. Lindsay Graham and his ilk have absolutely no idea what “pulling oneself up by their bootstraps” entails these days. We have forgotten that it really does take a village/ community/… that supports the idea of the common good over individual greed.
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All politicians are like him.
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Add Paul Ryan to the list of those Rs who, like a lot of us, “made it” thanks largely to the safety net they now are in the process of destroying. . . .or as I put it in my postcard to him:
Paul Ryan going postcard– sharing from my awesome NPE friend Karen Wolfe:
Paul Ryan has turned off ALL of his public telephones & fax machines in response to protests in favor of Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, Medicare, etc. And he is NOT accepting signed petitions; instead he’s TURNING AWAY voters who deliver the petitions.
So, let’s see what 67 million postcards looks like in his driveway. Please start mailing postcards to him:
PAUL RYAN
700 ST. LAWRENCE AVE.
JANESVILLE, WI 53545
Here is what my postcard says:
Speaker Ryan,
How do you live with yourself cutting the safety net that you (and I) grew up on? I was a Social Security single-mom kid too but I guess we learned different lessons.
Bertis Downs
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The safety net and his family .
“And yet Ryan, 42, was born into one of the most prominent families in Janesville, Wis., the son of a successful attorney and the grandson of the top federal prosecutor for the western region of the state. Ryan grew up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includes investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/25/nation/la-na-ryan-assets-20120826
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And, Ryan went to a public university, Miami of Ohio.
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The letter writer does not quite have the story correct or lying Lindsay is fabricating quite a bit . He was born in 55 graduated in 77 , His mother died when he was 21 and father when he was 22 . So it is not quite true that he put himself through college.
He did however put himself through law school, of course the financial details of how is probably another story. As that he would have been too old for survivors benefits. But regardless of how many miles he walked to school each day or how many Cherry trees he chopped down, he probably had it a lot easier than today’s millennial’s.
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I neglected to mention that ROTC was part of his financial aid
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Funny [not the haha kind] that rheephormsters can’t do the math when it undercuts their arguments.
Or maybe not so strange when you consider that the kind of math that swells their bank accounts and campaign war chests—aka $tudent $ucce$$—can’t abide any number or stat that smacks of honesty, integrity and consistency.
Go figure…
😎
P.S. Thanks to all for an informative thread.
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We used to pay taxes and have low tuition at state schools. My local state college, Middle Tennessee State University, was overflowing with professors who inspired me in a way that motivates me to learn still. All for a bit less a semester than Lindsey Graham paid. My students now spend a huge chunk of their time jumping through hoops to get grants and scholarships. I did not have time to jump,through hoops. Dairy cows have to be milked. I thank all of my responsible legislators. Would that they still existed.
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I was VERY lucky. My father was ill when I was 11 &, subsequently, lost his business & everything. My mother could not work. Quite a few times, relatives jumped in to pay for food, electric, water & gas bills, when the gas was shut off. I started working when I was 13 (lucky for me, the business didn’t care that I wasn’t of legal age to work–I sold newspaper subscriptions, & did well enough that they kept me). I worked after school & summers, but I helped w/some bills at home, & still had scraped together little, even to go to a college near home. However, at the 11th hour (& I DO mean the 11th hour!), I won a FOUR YEAR scholarship (good grades) from the State Congress of Parents & Teachers.
I went to the 4-year state u. & lived at home; it only cost $39/quarter (I just had to pay fees & for {used} books, which were much cheaper then–they’re $300 now!!!). I was able to graduate in 3 yrs. (saved the C.P.T. a whole year in tuition–so hope the $$ went to a later recipient–of course, that scholarship has been unavailable for a very long time). I decided to go into special ed., & so went to grad school, for which I received a national sp.ed. fellowship (shortage of sp.ed. teachers at the time) which PAID FOR EVERYTHING–tuition, room/board & books/supplies. (I had continued to work during undergrad, while commuting–2 jobs in the summer, 1 after school.) For the C.P.T. undergrad scholarship, I had only to sign a pledge that I would teach in the state for 2 or 3 years (don’t remember). After graduation, I had 4 job interviews almost immediately, & received offers from all 4. I started teaching the fall after my graduation, & made a decent salary.
Yes, I was VERY lucky. Neither scholarship nor fellowship is available today, nor is there a vast pool of after-school &/or summer jobs.
Would that our legislators and other recognize that our kids have it so very, very much harder than we did. Have they ever heard of the term “underemployed?” That’s rampant, today. At one not-for-profit workplace I know of, the CEO stepped down, & was replaced
by one who “laid off” all the older workers (one who was pregnant). She “replaced” them w/recent graduates, but these new hires were, in actuality, hired to do the jobs of 2-3 people who had been laid off. Although they had benefits (health insurance & such) &
what might be considered a decent salary for a new graduate, it was a salary for ONE job–not the 2-3 that the new hire had to perform. Is this exploitation? Yes. Plus, consider that many of these 20 somethings had tons of student loan debt, in addition to paying for all the daily living increases that Joel Herman (thank you, Joel) lists above.
When I was young, our parents celebrated the “burning of the mortgage”–finally paying off their homes. These days, people that age are celebrating the retirement of their student debts–if they can. Own a home? Might not ever happen.
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