School has become more of a burden than a blessing.

It’s studying, investing and dedication, but it’s also rushing to class between jobs, staying up all night, losing yourself to stress and spending every last penny you have.

President Obama hopes to ease those struggles by bringing education to the forefront and offering the first two years of community college free to those willing to go.

Maybe free education is the answer for the short run, but affordable education is what we need for true future growth.

We can’t expect students to specialize or become doctors, lawyers and innovators if we only help them through the first step.

There’s medical school, law school and a masters that comes after basic education, and those will always come at a cost. But right now, the costs are outweighing the benefits.

Either you go to school and have thousands of dollars in debt weigh on your shoulders, or don’t and live day-to-day, paycheck-to-paycheck.

No matter what option you choose, putting food on the table is harder than it ought to be and money is constantly an issue.

And what will happen to higher-level education when a degree from community college carries the same weight as a degree from a four-year university?

When having a top-notch education gets you no further than having a minimal one, we’ve failed as a country.

We’ve continuously “prioritized” in a way that education always comes at the bottom of the list and now we’ve put ourselves in a last resort situation.

It’s the first place funding is cut, yet the first thing to blame when industries realize knowledge workers are in short supply.

Knowledge workers won’t be the result of millions of people with the same two years of free college and nothing else.

Universities participate in their own budget cuts, but maybe they should help us cut ours, too.

Students are spending hundreds of dollars on Cengage and Pearson memberships when Moodle offers the same capabilities for free.

Schools are creating university edition textbooks at premium prices when the only difference is that a couple chapters have been removed or a few additional elements have been added.

Students are willing to overlook chapters and print additional material at the library. We’ll put up with Moodle maintenance at inconvenient hours because buying things we could do without and watching our refund checks disappear in a fleeting moment is painful.

All these things that seem like small expenses add up and before we know it, we’ve spent 800 dollars on books and computer programs alone.

To a student, 800 dollars is rent.

It’s food, clothing, bills and money for that moment you realize your car just isn’t going to turn back on.

Creating change is hard.

There will be people behind you and just as many in front, trying to hold you back.

Democrat or Republican, right or wrong, there’s no denying that Obama is one of the few ready to make a change and put education back at the top of the list. That is something to be respected.

But, it will take more than looking into the next decade to make a change that lasts.