Part of the Series
Moyers and Company
For many high school seniors, April is the month for tough decisions about colleges and universities — and how to cover their enormous tuitions. College tuition has been increasing far more quickly than household median income in recent years, and ProPublica reported last week that student fees — in addition to the tuition — are on the rise. These fees cover non-academic programs ranging from counseling services to late library hours to sidewalk maintenance. Some public universities use fees as a way to substantially raise tuition without actually increasing the figure on students’ bills labeled “tuition.” Mandatory “fees” at the University of Massachusetts — where tuition has remained flat by order of the state school board — are more expensive than the cost of tuition.
States have cut higher education funding deeply in recent years.States have cut higher education funding deeply in recent years.
These cuts also come at a time when well-paying jobs that could help students pay back their loans are increasingly hard to find. The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted data from the Labor Department reporting that 284,000 graduates with bachelors degrees were working minimum-wage jobs in 2012. The figure peaked at 327,000 in 2010. It has declined since then, but it’s still twice what it was in 2007 and 70 percent higher than it was ten years ago.
Studies by the National Employment Law Project have found that middle-wage jobs took the hardest hit during the Great Recession and those jobs have not come back during the recovery. In fact, low-wage jobs have rebounded 2.7 times as quickly as middle- and high-wage jobs. If this trend continues, students entering college this year will be less able to contribute to the economy than in years past, and less able to deal with the debt burden that comes with a college education.
Low-wage jobs have rebounded, but high- and middle-wage jobs have not.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $136,000 in one-time donations and to add 1440 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy