Special Edition ~ March 2001

By Patia Stephens

Ten years after graduating from high school in Thompson Falls, I was earning $5.50 an hour working for a weekly newspaper in northwestern Montana. Though I did the work of a reporter and copy editor, I was paid as a production assistant simply because I didn't have a college degree. With the encouragement of my editor, I overcame my fear of financial aid, enrolled at Flathead Valley Community College and never looked back.

Taking the plunge
Last May I graduated from The University of Montana with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism -- and $26,558 in student loan debt. During my five years at FVCC and UM, I worked 15-20 hours a week each semester and full time otherwise, received thousands of dollars in Pell Grants and scholarships, and still managed to graduate well over UM's current graduating senior average of $17,185 in debt (among the 55 percent of students who receive any financial aid).

I confess I could have lived more cheaply while I was in school. I ate Top Ramen once or twice a week when I could have eaten it every day. I could have given away my cat in order to live in student housing on campus. I could have forgone that "luxury" vacation I took one spring break to a sheep ranch on the Hi-Line.

Sarcasm aside, getting my degree wasn't easy -- financially, emotionally or intellectually -- but, wow, what an incredible experience.

I learned about so many amazing things: classical Greece, the Renaissance, the abolition of slavery, homesteading, the First Amendment, watersheds, Montana literature. I was introduced to William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, to Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, to Picasso and Michelangelo. I could have lived without algebra, but I was thrilled to learn how to calculate percentages -- in an editing class, of all places.

I sampled water quality on Flathead Lake, watched the Montana Legislature in action, and completed a summer internship in South Florida, farther away from home than I'd ever been. Thinking about everything I learned during my five years in college brings an immense sense of accomplishment and gratitude.

Starting in a hole
So I didn't have any regrets when, just before Christmas, I wrote out my first $325 check for student loan repayment. I'll be writing that check every month for the next 10 years. In the long term, my college education will end up costing me more than $39,000 in loan principal and interest.

But I count my blessings because, so far, I am one of the lucky ones. My writing and editing abilities, combined with Web design skills I picked up at FVCC, UM and on my internship, helped me land a job that not only lets me meet my loan payment each month, but also allows me to stay in Montana.

Four years ago Becky Shay, a former newspaper co-worker who preceded me into journalism school, wrote about her impending graduation and $28,000 in debt. She encouraged the state Legislature to create the Montana Tuition Assistance Program to help students that came after her.

"In my case, is there really a difference between $26,000 and $28,000 in debt?" Shay wrote in 1997. "Yes. ... For me, the additional grant money would have lowered my loan repayments around $25 a month -- living on a college student's budget, that money is the difference between easily paying a monthly utility bill and scratching to cover the living expense."

MTAP wasn't approved in time for Becky, but I did receive a $500 Baker Grant during my last year at UM, which will save me $734 over the next 10 years. And a student who receives a $500 Baker Grant four years in a row will save almost $3,000 over 10 years.

"What the Legislature did has made a difference," said Mick Hanson, UM's financial aid director. "The Baker Grant truly has made a difference for many in-state students. Approximately 1,000 students at The University of Montana who have a strong work ethic and are from low- to mid-income families may be borrowing $500,000 less in 2000-2001."

Shrinking funding
However, there remains room for improvement. Between 1994 and 1999, Montana's per capita income increased by 21 percent. But for the five academic years between 1995-96 and 2000-01, UM tuition increased almost 100 percent. That's right -- tuition has nearly doubled in the past five years because of shrinking state funding. So every year, more students are forced to borrow more money. That has real consequences for Montana's graduates.

Recently, I called Becky at her job as a crime reporter for the Billings Gazette. The job allowed her to return in September to her home state from Wyoming, where she worked after graduation.

"I felt horrendous guilt when I brain-drained out of the state for three years," she told me. "Montana had invested in me and I left. Now I'm so happy to be back home paying the personal income tax."

But two years earlier she hadn't been quite so cheerful. Student loan repayment was taking too big a chunk of Becky's salary, so a year after graduation, she refinanced with a bank loan.

Although her monthly payments are more manageable now, the tradeoff is higher interest rates and a 15-year repayment period. Her education will have cost her $51,000 when she's through, but she doesn't regret it.

"It's intimidating, but it's the best money I ever spent," she said. "I'm pretty happy to have my degree."

While Becky and I commiserate over our monthly loan payments and our respective 12- and 13-year-old cars, I have to wonder about other graduates. Becky and I were nontraditional students with the advantage of previous work experience. How do others fare?

Broke graduates
It's hard to track how many graduates take jobs out of state, but loan default rates indicate that all is not well in the state of Montana. The most recent statistics show a default rate of 9.4 percent for students who borrowed from the Montana Guaranteed Student Loan Program.

"Montana's cohort default rate has been steadily going up," said Arlene Hannawalt, MGSLP director. "Students are having to pick up more of the tab. ... They're borrowing more. They are paying the price."

Loans make up 68 percent of UM's financial aid packages, vs. 57 percent nationally, according to Mick Hanson. Two things need to happen to improve those numbers, he said: Americans need to change their attitudes about saving, and Montana needs to change its attitude about funding education.

The 1997 Legislature gave the first a good push when it approved the Montana Family Education Savings Program, which allows families to prepay for a college education at significant savings by opening a tax-deferred CD account. The program has been wildly popular, exceeding legislative expectations by nearly four times in its first two years. More than $13 million has been invested to date.

Investing for the future
But for those of us whose families did not provide for our college educations, the Legislature can make a real difference by increasing funding to Montana's colleges and universities. Otherwise, tuition, borrowing and loan default rates will continue to grow, none of which is good for Montana.

"I firmly believe that education funding is an investment for the state of Montana," Hanson said. "If costs were reduced for students on financial aid so they would pay a smaller share, they would be borrowing less. Students who borrow less may not have to move to another state to afford their student loan payments."

And that means people like Becky and me can keep working and paying that personal income tax in the state we love.

Patia Stephens is a news editor and Web designer for University Relations.

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