At the beginning of every school year San Diego Mesa College receives an influx of incoming freshman, many of which are able to attend our institution with the assistance of financial aid.

Financial aid is an invaluable resource to our community and school. It provides many students the funds necessary to further one’s educational journey, when it would otherwise seem impossible. However, in what ways are we guaranteed that the students receiving these allotted funds are using them in a responsible and proper manner?

Sadly enough, we now live in a generation where young adults display their medical marijuana cards with more pride and fervor than they do their diplomas. Practicality, responsibility and education have taken a backseat to gluttony, greed and mindless self indulgence. It is this group of young people which our US Department of Education is entrusting with hundreds of thousands of dollars to supposedly spend on their academia.

Now although a large portion of these students may be spending a fraction of their financial aid on their education, a large amount of these funds are not finding their way back into our educational system. Too many students eagerly await the arrival of their financial aid checks so that they may finish their tattoos, purchase illicit substances or buy tickets to the upcoming rave of their choosing.

Amidst all this reckless spending you’ll find that the ever cliché proletariat remains empty handed and uneducated. And with the recent unit price increase many of these middle class students found themselves sleeping in on the first day of the fall semester, unable to acquire or pay for classes. During this time the other students who receive financial aid are busy planning what to do with their remaining wealth rather than attend their courses.

Programs such as Free Application for Federal Student Aid distribute thousands of dollars in grants to students every year with little to zero assurance that the funds are being used appropriately, funds which are allocated through American tax dollars. Students are cut signed checks for thousands of dollars and once the checks are cashed the money is the sole responsibility of that student.

It goes without saying that the community certainly doesn’t want to be left holding the check for some half-wit’s tribal band tattoo while our peers are left unable to receive any assistance in their pursuit in furthering their education.

It is a flawed system which the government and student body is not taking seriously enough, and the blame falls upon both sects.

It is apparent that America’s young people cannot be trusted with such gross amounts of money without some sort of checking system in place and it is the Department of Education’s responsibility to put these necessary steps in motion. They must do so in order to not only better our young people but to stop the perpetual squandering of the taxpayer’s hard earned money.

As students we have to be mature about our financial planning, our entire country is in debt. Not only as a nation but as individuals, if that isn’t a force for change nothing is. The money financial aid provides is for educational purposes exclusively and considering that we’re at the community college level, a financial aid student’s need for educational financing is nowhere near over. It is officially time to grow up.