Is higher education in the U.S. as bad as this article makes it seem?

The educational loan industry is as disgustingly trashy as they come. The rates on these get higher and higher as state budgets raise rates on their students even more to cover cuts in funding. The companies that profit from these loans have extremely strong ties to congress, so that pretty much screws anything from being done. A crisis is inevitable.

It is not mere convenience that student loans are one of the very few if only things that you can’t discharge in a bankruptcy.

Well, yes and no. I think the really big thing is that it keeps talking about for-profit schools, which are a problem exactly like they said (actually much more, because they often lie to students about how much it will cost, how much aid they can get, etc – a few have been sued for fraud), but most schools aren’t for-profit. All state schools, and most private schools, aren’t the schools they’re talking about.

As an article, it’s a bit… meh. Like this opening line “Yet for all the moralizing about American consumer debt by both parties, no one dares call higher education a bad investment.” Um, yeah, actually, everyone says it’s a bad investment. It was actually pretty big news when some study came out (recently) and said, no, actually, you will at least break even – maybe not earn tons more money like you thought, but you will at least not be flushing money down the toilet like everyone says. Seriously, I find at least one article telling me how student loans will ruin my life forever (unless I go for something extra-useful, like engineering – even if I have a plan for putting my liberal arts degree to use in an actual career, not just being able to talk about philosophy and history while waiting tables) per week.

Student loans are a huge, huge problem. It is a bubble, we are heading for a crisis. But, I’m not sure that article really does the issue any justice.

What I find most disturbing is the following set of claims:
1. The cost of an education has risen far in excess of the rate of inflation
2. The credentials of those teaching the courses has fallen dramatically
3. Most of the increased costs have gone to high salaried administrators.

In other words, people are paying more and getting less. How has it been possible for that to occur?

@LostInParadise

1. Yes.
2. No, not really. It’s more that they have all the credentials, but aren’t getting paid fairly or getting any kind of job security.
3. Sort of. The increase in salaries tends to go to higher-up admins, yes, but the increased overall tuition rates is more because they’re getting less and less from the state. If it costs 10k per student per semester (btw, totally made up numbers here), and the state paid for 8k, then tuition is only 2k per student. But when the state only pays 500 per student, students then have to pay 9.5k per semester. So that’s more what’s going on in the rise of tuition rates.

How is this possible? This is the downside of a meritocracy; everyone goes for a better future and devalues the product. This is what happens when anti-intellectualism and a hatred of government sweep the country.

At first when I saw the question I was thinking about how some around me talk about not everyone should or has to go to college. That we know have all these not so great colleges around the US, and there is all this conversations about how everyone should have a degree. I don’t know how I feel about that sentiment overall. But, I do think we need to as a country show more respect to those who don’t have college education, but who earn an honest living, and our secondary education needs to have vocational opportunities, or post high school paths to help our teen population find their way if college is not for them.

At the same time, college needs to be more accessible, and I do mean financially accessible. It seems to me the university system is ripping people off, as pointed out in a question I asked a while back, that I think you will find interesting, possibly part of the problem is the government loans? The schools increase the tuition because the government loans and grants, and other scholarships make it so the universities raise tuition and people can afford to pay some of it on their own maybe, so the poor still have a horrible struggle, and the wealthy can just afford it anyway. And, the middle class are in the middle, some still paying $10k a year with tuition and housing just like 10 years ago, but the tuition has doubled actually. Or, something like that.

Also, research demands on the university, and competing for professors who publish I guess, to maintain the academic ranking.

I gave up on the article when I read this…
“What kind of incentives motivate lenders to continue awarding six-figure sums to teenagers facing both the worst youth unemployment rate in decades and an increasingly competitive global workforce?”.

It quickly devolved into a criticism of the lending practices of banks again before, during and hopefully after this recession where there should be no restrictions what-so-ever to loaning money to a kid who wants to learn and better themselves no matter what the economic OR political climate. Kids who want to learn and are afforded a quality school to learn at that provides an atmosphere and curriculum that actually teaches kids how to learn and better themselves will produce a steady stream of productive wage earners. From my vantage point only a select few schools provide this atmosphere and there on down it is pretty much up to the student to try and figure it out for themselves….and HS if I can do it so can any one else.

@Cruiser Yeah, that sentence you quoted is so very familiar. Amazing how we never learn. So, is it your impression that the schools can actually charge less, and still make a profit? Do you think if people refused to pay the high fees, or were not able to if loans went away for the most part, or were greatly reduced, that the universities would be forced to into competing for business at lower prices? I didn’t notice on the article, but barely skimmed it, if the universities are making hand over fist in profit? Did you notice?

@JLeslie I don’t know the answer….but I do know a lot of kids opt for the military solely to get a decent education so instead of enticing kids to be all you can be in the military machine….give them reasonable incentives and access to an affordable well rounded higher education. Pretty simple. Yes it comes at a price to support higher learning in our universities but just imagine the overall return on investment if more kids wanted to and could get a sheepskin.

@Cruiser The military to me is a separate issue. I fully support that program. I think the money is actually deducted from their salary, maybe it is matched somehow by the government? Not sure. But, the soldiers earn going to school, it is not a loan or a scholarship I don’t think.

@JLeslie AFAICT there are full scholarships plus monthly living expense stipends and if you go for an advanced medical degree you can even get a $20,000 signing bonus.

@Cruiser Do the miitary medical doctors do all their schooling at a military medical teaching facility? I grew up in military health care, treated at Bethesday Naval, and I know that was a teaching hospital. That is not the same as paying an outside university or facility to train our military doctors.

@JLeslie I can’t answer that as my info for my answer was from that link.