Since the COVID-19 outbreak began many people are out of work or working from home. This has severely impacted the United States and world economy. Due to this, Congress has conducted a bill to provide stimulus checks for citizens who are severely affected by the pandemic. The stimulus bill was signed into law on March 27, it consists of $2.2 trillion that will go to various businesses and individuals. 

Students have been harmed by the lockdown because most work in non-essential jobs. This proves hard to save for college because students are not earning any source of revenue. Also, most high school and college students do not qualify for the stimulus check. 

Senior Austin Schuldt believed he would qualify for a stimulus check, but was later told he would not be receiving any money. 

“I knew high school students did not qualify for unemployment under any circumstances, but then once they released the new rules it appeared that I would qualify. It turned out I didn’t,” Schuldt said.

Saving for college or other post-secondary opportunities is close to impossible during this time. Many students may not be able to afford to go to college next year. This is forcing students to look at other options such as tech schools and community colleges, like Century College. Twelve hundred dollars would greatly help a student trying to save for a four year university or trying to pay off student debt. 

“That might not mean a lot to most people, but someone at my age… That means a lot just going into college next year to have that check to save,” Schuldt said. 

There is a misconception the economy is completely shut down, but this is not the case. Many sectors are closed, however essential workers are still working. The closure of businesses is a trade off for human lives and most people agree this is the right plan. A handful of states are starting to ease restrictions but, in the long term, this could put many people at risk. 

“The temporary closure of many businesses is probably the right thing to do in the short run. This is unprecedented in our modern history, we have not seen anything like this since the flu pandemic of 1918-19. Eventually businesses will start to open again and workers will get hired back. The whole process might take a year or longer but hundreds of thousands of lives could potentially be saved. The trade-off of lives for money/jobs is probably the right decision,” economics teacher Mike Weiss said. 

Although most students do not qualify for the government’s financial aid, many are still finding “side hustles” to make money. These can include different ordering services like DoorDash and Grubhub. Senior Jacob Day began to work for Doordash after he was put out of work. 

“I have started doing DoorDash, I go and pick up food for people and drop it off at their house. I’ve made quite a lot of money doing it, I’ve been doing it for about two weeks now. I think it’s a good side hustle during this time,” Day said.

Without work these students can not save for the future. Colleges must take this into consideration when students are applying or paying off debt.