Prices of products in America have soared since the implementation of tariffs on imported goods. Citizens must now spend hundreds of dollars on groceries that won’t last through the week. The recent spike in prices has deeply affected college students who are already struggling to pull enough money together to pay for their tuition. For example, the book store at Southern University and A & M college has seen an increase in the prices of its textbooks.
“The materials that are being required by professors has increased,” explained Bookstore Manager, Jamien Holland. “So, in order to make it fair both the students and business, the prices have went up. A prime example is nursing students. They get thousand dollar books and they only pay four-hundred dollars,” Holland continued to explain.
“I think it’s going to increase overall because eventually everybody’s course material is going to go up. And with the tariffs it costs more to get things. It takes more effort to get it at a more reasonable price”, said Holland.
How do students feel about the sudden change in prices? Are these changes just or unfair? Freshman Computer Science major Dillon Comena expressed their concerns about the prices increasing. “I feel like the book store shouldn’t raise the prices because students need those books for classes and it’s very hard to pay for them. I feel as though students shouldn’t have to buy books or have the prices be lowered. But since prices were raised because of the cost of resources I understand.”
Randy Scott Jr., also a freshman, and a Risk Management and Insurance major, shared a similar sentiment to Comena saying, “It’s reasonable if it was caused by the economy and the current political situation. Then again, we are college students and you can’t raise the price to a point where we can’t buy the books. This may cause some problems but I think the students will adapt and understand. The school should still be mindful of the prices though.”
The raised prices of the book store is only the beginning for the potential struggles that college students could face.The shaky economy of America caused by tariffs and its government shutdown show flashes of a bleak future with an increase in prices for educational resources and a heightened percentage of student debt. It raises the question:How much are you willing to pay for an education?
