Economic hardships for students

In today’s world we are suffering from economic hardships every time we turn around whether it is from losing one’s job or not being able to make ends meet. The cost of everyday living keeps going up at an alarming rate and is not going to change anytime in the near future. With people being either laid off or going through another crisis such as a divorce, it has become harder to get by on what we already have.
Students in both the high school and at the college level are also being affected by the poor economy. High school students are being affected by the economy in many ways. More and more parents are applying for help with school supplies and for the federal free lunch program which has double its size in the past five years in certain areas of the United States. An increase of parents has been applying for help from prosperous neighborhoods which has surprised some school officials. These families sometimes fall just in between the earned income level and have to be turned away because they earned just over the maximum amount to be considered eligible.
College students have been affected by the poor economy by way of either losing an on-campus job or having to apply for more student loans due to parents not being able to help pay for their child’s tuition. Funds have become low on some campuses throughout the United States which is causing departments to have to let go of students to stay within the budget. A continued recession is cause for concern because there are more students every year who need or are seeking student employment on-campus. With big factories lying off hundreds of workers at a time, college students will have an even harder time finding jobs since those laid off will be looking for a job that will at least allow them to pay the bills. This is a roundabout problem because parents are losing their jobs and therefore can’t help out their child. This in turns leads to the parent having to find a job that the child/student otherwise would’ve had.
Avoiding the poor and failing economy is inevitable but there are things we can do and precautions we can take to prepare ourselves for the worst that could happen. Saving up money so that we have enough to cover expenses for at least three months and staying home more often will allow us to be more financially stable. We should avoid using credit cards so that we don’t dig ourselves into a debt that we can’t get out of. Finding a second job if you fear a lay off might be in store and applying for government help such as food stamps and unemployment are other ways to beat the economic hardships.