Dear Editor:

I enrolled in a state college after I got out of the Navy back in 1978. Between the GI Bill, which was more generous then, my reserve duty pay and the minimum wage night job I worked, I was able to pay for tuition, books and fees out of pocket. It was a meager, austere life of a student but I soon gained my degree and took my place among the working middle class.

Recently I looked at the tuition of the same state college and I must say that I would be hard pressed to afford to send a child to college today. There is no mystery here as to why this is so. Over the years state college budgets have been repeatedly cut to pay for tax cuts.

The results of these cuts means that students have to borrow large sums to get their degrees. Instead of saving for a house or building a business, they must repay these loans. And at a time when their parents should be doubling down on retirement savings, they too are burdened with their student’s debt.

What have we gotten with all these tax cuts? College is not the only thing that has gotten more expensive. Health care costs is also bankrupting more families than ever. Most employees have seen their wages stagnate and benefits reduced.

It is certainly nice to see a little bump in my take home pay, but what have we really gained? Most of the tax benefits have gone to the very wealthy and the rest of us shoulder the burden.

I am sure that there are many parents who would restore a fair and progressive tax system and able to afford to send their children to college.

Skewing tax cuts for the rich only makes the rest of us poorer. There is one word that comes to mind when I think of politicians who cut our education budgets for the sake of giving tax cuts for the already rich. Greed.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay