Posted on 04/19/2011 8:55:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Senator Bernie Sanders added a new victim to the long list in his most recent column -- college students. Sanders complained that the Republican budget proposal would reduce the average Pell higher education grant by 17 percent at a time when the cost of a college education is "soaring."
Having just sent the last of my three children off to college, I cannot argue with Sanders’ description of college tuition costs -- they are, indeed, soaring. Statistics confirm personal observation as, according to the Measuring Up 2008 report by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, tuition and fees for U.S. colleges and universities increased by 439 percent between 1982 and 2007.
Over this same period, median family income rose only 147 percent. In fact, a line graph showing increases in medical, housing and education costs in comparison to the Consumer Price Index has education on top, far and away.
Maintaining the current level of higher education funding, or worse, raising it, does nothing to address the issue of why college costs are rising so much faster than others. In fact, it may be ignoring one of the biggest factors in increasing costs. Much of the upward pressures on college costs can be traced directly to government involvement in education financing. Colleges charge more because the government makes sure the money will be paid.
Aid to college students has increased at well above the rate of inflation over the past few decades. In 1990 the federal government provided $19 billion in grants and loan guarantees. By 2000 that number had climbed to $63 billion. The 2009 federal budget included more than $129 billion in federal assistant to college students, and President Obama’s 2012 budget raises that amount to nearly 167 billion, a $38 billion or 29 percent increase in three years.
It is not unreasonable to observe that once a third party takes partial responsibility for costs, both consumers and providers become a lot more careless about how that money is used.
There are a number of games being played by our colleges and universities to justify rising costs. One is to send out a gazillion brochures to every high school kid who’s even sneezed in the direction of the SAT so as to attract as many applicants as possible. Since there are only so many openings, the school then gets to reject a whole lot of those applicants (and still keep their $50 to $80 application fees) and appear more "exclusive."
The more exclusive they appear, the more they can charge for their services. The current crop of students and their parents have accepted this unquestioningly and have shown a willingness to pay, with help from Uncle Sam, top dollar for what they believe will be a superior education.
Meanwhile, college costs show no sign of moderating and more young people are starting their working lives saddled with significant amounts of debt, only some of which is federally subsidized.
"Cheap" loans lure many young people into higher education despite their lack of serious interest in academic pursuits. That many students are attending college for the wrong reasons is borne out by some disappointing findings: Six-year graduation rates for bachelor’s students is only about 56 percent; college students devote 3.2 hours to education on an average weekday, versus 3.9 hours to "leisure and sports;" and almost half of full-time college students binge drink or abuse drugs, with the incidence of such behaviors rising.
Since these young people still have to repay their loans, whether or not they actually benefit from their time spent in college or complete their degrees, should warrant more caution on the parts of parents, students and institutions.
There are a few colleges that have not joined this circle of folly, and these exceptions help prove the rule. One of them is Grove City College, a small, private liberal arts college in western Pennsylvania. GCC does not accept any money tied to federal funding, including Pell Grants, federally guaranteed student loans and even scholarships. GCC prides itself on being academically rigorous as well as affordable.
For the 2010-11 school year GCC charged students about $21,000 for tuition, room and board. Compare this to the average private college costs of slightly more than $37,000 for the same academic fiscal year. Somehow Grove City is able to provide a quality education without the federal dollar infusion and does it at almost half the average cost.
Government-guaranteed loans and grants distort the true cost of education. If parents and students start refusing to take on excessive debt in order to pay the hyper-inflated tuition rates being fueled by third-party involvement in education financing, we should soon see a downward shift in higher education costs. Wiser consumers could provide the good, sharp pin of which the higher education bubble is in dire need.
-- Audrey Pietrucha helps coordinate the Vermont Liberty Alliance
One of my sons attended ERAU back in the early 90’s. Tuition was $13000 a year. This is what it would cost now. Obviously now it would be out of our reach.
Estimated Costs Undergraduate Students Item Cost
Tuition and Fees* $29,248
Room and Board $8,790
Books (estimated) $1,400
Total, non-flight students** $39,438
The main advantage of attending an Ivy League college is the opportunity for quality networking.
She has actually maneuvered herself around the college application process to where she is able to attend the best school for her major, and has gotten scholarships and non federal funding so that she only has to foot about $5k of the $33k bill.
Smart kid. Much smarter than I.
Well said. You forgot to mention that many of them are Marxist ideologues whose main interest is the political and sexual indoctrination of students, not teaching core subjects.
Since the 1960s most colleges and universities have been politically radicalized on the public dollar. Any parent who sends a son or daughter off to college these days without knowing a lot about what and how the school teaches risks sending their child into a damaging environment.
RE: One of my sons attended ERAU back in the early 90’s
Pilots are paid very well. One year’s salary could pretty much pay off the tuition by my estimation.
If you want a higer education pay for it yourself period.
You are absolutely right. The textbook scam goes like this: students pay hundreds of dollars for a textbook. About four or five semesters later, the textbook publishers offer a “new” addition, which is commonly the same old edition with the cover and a few pages changed and maybe a few other minor changes. That way, the textbook publishers can charge the students for new instead of used books. If is an endless cycle.It is not uncommon for a student to pay $500-800 a semester just for books.
Amen!
The cost of higher education is inflated.
The estimated preparedness of incoming Freshmen, and their appropriateness for college is inflated.
The grades are inflated.
The self-assessment of the knowledge of graduating students is inflated.
The whole process has become a joke.
Ah. Thomas Sowell...one of my “heroes” (see my freep page...:)
Should be: The GREAT Thomas Sowell.
A really discouraging, infuriating yet funny anecdote about this type of thing (the textbook industry) is described in the excellent book by Richard Feynman (of the Manhattan Project) “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”.
During the early seventies (I think) he wanted to become more involved in his local education system in his town, to help better the system. One of his pet peeves throughout his entire life was the quality of the science textbooks used in schools, which he thought was simply appalling. He had very specific ideas about what he liked in textbooks, so he thought this was an area he could be very helpful in. He volunteered to work on the board that vetted the books and chose them for the schools.
As soon as he was assigned to the board for this large school district in California, he began getting gifts delivered to his front door. All kinds of things from fancy cooking knives to very expensive food baskets and so on. When he was asked if he would like to review any of the books that were under consideration, he eagerly said yes, and when they asked him which ones, he said: “All of them.”
There was a long pause, and the person arranging it said in an odd voice “Okaaaaay...”
A week later, a huge wooden crate about six feet to a side showed up at his front door FULL of books. He was astonished, but immediately set out to evaluating the books. He read and went through every single book, taking copious notes, marking books up in the margins and so on. After a long, drawn out process of evaluation, he chose the books he thought were best, and went to the board meeting which would select the books.
He had pads of paper, full of notes, all the books graded from best to worst, price figured in, you name it.
They all looked at him like he had three heads. They knew beforehand which books they were going to choose. The whole selection process was a sham, but nobody bothered to tell him!
He was extremely disillusioned, to say the least!
Treat it as an investment. What is the return?
Treat it as an investment. What is the return?
Wow. Double posts 10 minutes apart? FR is getting a little flaky today.
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