"The Skyrocketing Cost of Higher Education"

http://www.phawkins.com/ ^ | 04-17-2009 | self

[Puddleglum]

We need to fix the problem of colleges sending graduates out into the world with mountains of debt and degrees that are increasingly deflated because everyone gets one.

The sources of this problem are the three-fold: 1) college prices are high because everyone wants in (supply and demand), 2) degrees are worth less because universities grant them with increasing rapidity while holding students to increasingly low academic standards, and 3) government has the misplaced idea that it is somehow democratic to fund college education based on economic standards and not student merit.

Government policy toward education should be to assist our best and brightest, to reward their academic excellence and hard work in high school, and to assist them in the pursuit of a career that will enable them to contribute to the work, thought, and culture that are the strengths of the USA while also enriching their own lives.

Instead, government is using higher education as a tool to rectify “economic injustice” – that is, taxpayers are funding students primarily on the basis of economic means tests and not merit. We are told it is our duty to spend tax dollars to send the economically disadvantaged to college in order to redress years of under-representation among key demographic groups, so as to open the door to a brighter future for them and enable them to climb the economic ladder.

[Puddleglum]

An article I wrote - I write to sort out my thoughts on issues. Over the past several years I have been sickened to read about tuition hikes - I guess the student in me is still close to the surface. Also, I am continuing to address big ticket items that some Republicans convince themselves to vote for.

[kabar]

If government wouldn’t subsidize the costs thru grants, loans, and other assistance to both students and colleges, colleges would not be able to charge the kinds of tuition they do. Supply and demand would kick in.

[RobRoy]

Simple solution is to simply opt out.

The only people that should be going to college are those that :
1. are looking at professions like engineering, medicine, teaching, etc.
2. are so rich that the cost in time and money is irrelevant.

A lot of people are already figuring that out. It is odd that univrsities are actually raising prices in such an environment.

[arthurus]

The more the government reduces costs for people the higher the price will be. The government wants to “subsidise” education by paying a portion of the cost but the price will rise with the amount of the subsidy and it will cost the unsubsidized more without actually reducing the cost to the subsidized.

[Lucian]

ping

[Leisler]

Aren’t ‘students’ 18?

Why should one person be taxed to give, directly or not, money to another?

If you want to go to school, go. Have your parent pay. Work. Borrow. Enlist, or any combination.

I don’t see why workers should be taxed to support ‘Gay Studies, Theater, Criminal Justice, Engineering’ or anything else.

[iacovatx]

“The more the government reduces costs for people the higher the price will be.”

And the same for pharmaceuticals, medical care, housing, and on and on and on. Travel to Europe and see how high the prices are despite wages and economic opportunity for the individual being thoroughly mediocre. The government controls or “provides” most everything. Education is provided but jobs for new graduates are hard to obtain. High unemployment among the young is one result. High prices are another.

[iacovatx]

“Government policy toward education should be to assist our best and brightest, to reward their academic excellence and hard work”

This is why I am arguing for REDUCTIONS in taxes for those who complete high school, perform well enough to complete a worthwhile college degree (a profession such as traditional science, engineering or medicine), start a profitable business, employ another person, or making a valuable contribution such as serving in combat. I would support lower tax rates the higher your standardized test scores on professional or academic knowledge.

In other words, I want to reverse the taxation system given that I can’t eliminate taxes on income or enact a more fair tax system.

[conservative cat]

There is a program for low-income students in the next district over that as long as they get a C average (yes, you read that right), they get full tuition paid at a state college.

I have long been an advocate of a system like Europe where the tuition is paid for all, BUT the universities are reserved for those with aptitude.

[arthurus]

I started to extend it to medicine but that would have been to long for a ‘Reply.’ It is a natural law of economics. The more money is offered for a service the higher the price.Medicine is perhaps the most pernicious example.

[Puddleglum]

I can see where states might want to fund scholarships, through tax dollars, to nurture their best and brightest, and of course private donors can fund scholarships galore. The federal interest is much less justifiable - unless, of course, we feel a national security interest to cultivate home-grown experts in a particular field.

I am still boning up on Title I, Title IV, Title IX, and all the sub-titles. Most seem to have sprung from LBJ's War on Poverty.

[CodeToad]

If it were an education it might be worth it. So far, universities have been proving themselves to be concerned with nothing but money, education be damned.

[Osage Orange]

Teaching!!

LOL!!