We cannot afford to live. Repeat. We, (students), cannot afford to live. We are facing an uphill battle with money. Getting our lives together and supporting ourselves for the future seems impossible, especially after a new proposed fee increase.

Everyone has heard about the fee increase. If you haven’t and are a student, get ready to pay $190 more a semester to get your degree. Many students have voiced their opinions on the increase, saying that it is making it harder to live, harder to get an education and putting more unneeded stress on their lives. Still, whether or not the money is needed isn’t really the issue here.

Sure, I understand that adding money to student health, athletics and learning are important. The issue is more about the coverage that CSU and college students are receiving nationally and state-wide. Why are we being forced to pay even more for our education, on top of what we are already struggling to pay, year after year after year? From 1987 and 2017, the cost of a four-year undergraduate education has risen 213 percent, according to CNBC.

The average amount of debt a student leaves university with is $25,550. After college, the median home value in California is $529,900, up 8.6 percent in the past year.

So why is it, that with the struggles that the majority of students are already facing, that Chico State is trying to squeeze the last drops of money we have out of our pockets. Where is our government funding? Why does it seem that at a place that is supposed to be supporting students for a brighter and more financially stable future, that students are being forced into homelessness and hunger to afford an education?

We need more government funding. We need more support. We need people to be on our side, to help us come out of college with a degree, a job and enough money to get our life started. We need less debt and we need more support from our state and our nation. Students don’t need this fee increase. I’m sure that top faculty at this university, with their $300,000 annual salaries, can figure out a way to help us out.

Did you know that in 2016 the Chancellor Chico State, Timothy P. White made $542,947.83 in pay and benefits? The president of the University, Gayle E. Hutchinson, made $361,800.79 in pay and benefits in 2017. All of this information can be found at transparentcalifornia.com. I urge you to check it out.

Kendall George can be reached at [email protected] or @kendallmgeorge on Twitter.