It hasn’t always been this way. College graduates have not always been left alone to struggle with thousands of dollars of debt.

Today, the level of student loan debt in the United States has grown to over $1.6 trillion, a 42 percent increase from just 10 years ago. For those under age 40, nearly 25 percent are burdened by student loans. And although the numbers clearly show that college graduates continue to gain socioeconomically, young graduates with debt are more likely to report that they are struggling financially compared to those without debt.

In recent years, both Republican and Democratic politicians have been rightly decrying the current levels of rising student debt across the country. To address this problem, governors of both parties have signed legislation that supports free community college in their states. 

In 2019, Connecticut joined many of these red and blue states in passing legislation that formed the Pledge to Advance Connecticut (PACT) program (recently renamed the Mary Ann Handley Award), which allows qualifying students debt-free access to our state’s 12 community colleges.  Last academic year over 13,000 students benefited from Connecticut’s free community college program and those students benefiting from PACT are more likely to be retained and are more likely to graduate.

Given the clear success of our state’s free college program, it is time to expand educational access to the four Connecticut State Universities.

Again, it hasn’t always been this way. Free college in the United States used to be a norm. One of us, Fiona, graduated from a state university in California in the 1980s. At that time, states were investing heavily in their college and university systems, which were to remain tuition-free, serving as a public good, extending educational access beyond high school to all state residents who sought such an opportunity. 

However, by the end of that decade, the idea that college, much like K-12 education, ought to be a freely available public good began to be challenged in the political sphere. States began slowly and steadily disinvesting in their colleges and universities, and the responsibility for covering that gap in funding higher education became the responsibility of individual students and their families who increasingly relied on private and federal loans.  

That brings us to 2023, when the other one of us, Xander, graduated from a Connecticut State University. Even with family assistance, Xander still owes over $30,000 in student debt. The $300 they pay per month could instead be devoted to a new car that doesn’t break down monthly, or to a down payment on a home, or to the wedding they and their fiancée are planning. And a single missed payment can impact one’s credit score for months or years, meaning the choice for those with student debt is often between dinner tonight and one’s financial prospects tomorrow. This student debt is a specter of financial stress that will loom for the next decade, at minimum.

We know that 93 percent of our Connecticut State College and University system’s graduates stay and work in Connecticut. Our CSCU graduates not only work and pay taxes in our state but also want to buy houses, start businesses, and invest in their communities. For these reasons, we need to expand PACT and tuition-free college to the four Connecticut State Universities.  

We all lose when our most promising students are accruing more debt. An investment in their future is an investment in our future.

Xander Tyler is Director of Business Operations at the CSU-AAUP. A. Fiona Pearson is a Professor and Chair of Sociology at Central Connecticut State University.