Posted on 09/11/2011 3:00:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
My oldest child, Olivia, will be heading to college in two years. So it’s already become college-saving crunch time in our household. As we’ve been putting money away, I’ve become even more passionate about helping other people find ways to cut college expenses. So I’m intrigued by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to come up with an affordable college degree program. Perry, who’s running for president, has created quite a buzz for a bold — some say unrealistic — higher-education plan.
“I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks,” Perry said during his State of the State remarks this year.
And just how does he propose that schools offer degrees at a such a discount?
“Let’s leverage Web-based instruction, innovative teaching techniques and aggressive efficiency measures to reach that goal,” Perry said. “Imagine the potential impact on affordability and graduation rates — and the number of skilled workers it would send into our economy.”
Yes, just imagine.
Imagine the financial stress lifted off so many families if they could send their children to school for $2,500 a year, not including room and board.
.....Aside from an unfair slap to community colleges, I’m more than perturbed that Perry’s idea is being so quickly dismissed by the education establishment. It’s long past time that professionals in higher education — from college presidents to professors — work harder to figure out how to reduce college costs. They can no longer smugly claim that just having a degree is a fast track to high-paying jobs.
And let’s remove the politics from Perry’s challenge. True, he’s now a presidential candidate, and candidates will promise anything, but Perry’s proposal has merit, and it’s something all the candidates should embrace, including President Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You don’t necessarily need one day in an economics class to realize that more degrees will drive down starting salaries, you need a little real world experience and common sense. I learned as a small boy that if you go the market with a pickup load of nice watermelons and there are very few others there you get a good price but if you are just one of many with a nice load of watermelons you get little more than the cost of hauling them to the market. Someone told me later that that is what is meant by the “law of supply and demand”.
Unfortunately we are well supplied now with people in government who can make something very simple sound too complicated to understand and at the same time claim to be the only ones who understand the really complicated things.
Then they should do it, no matter what.
Everyone will be better off for it, including the kid.
What you said!
Bump!
Students go to college to receive training and education, but they *pay* for their professors’ research activities, the benefit of which does not accrue to them.
Inflation in the economy occurs when wages rise in such a way that drives up the prices of goods and services. For years higher education services prices have outpaced inflation in the broader economy. Why? Wages of professors drive it up of course. If you question this, it’s “well we have to pay them high salaries or we won’t get the best researchers.” ! But students aren’t paying for researchers, they are paying to be taught, they are paying for instruction, *not research.*
Good luck convincing an employer to take you on with that library card.
If YOU are the employer, no problem!
Just had brunch with a retired Conservative College Professor.
Some of discussion items.
* The "Dr" noted, current circulum at his college is outdated, no guidance either.
* We are taking away children's youth to build a resume for college, hyper-sports, public service etc, etc.
* Mental health pro's are wonder what effect that will have on society.
* The Colleges are more interest in the hyper-achiever kids, and alumni money, to fuel even greater competition teams of all types to build for example that 2 million dollar competition swimming pool.
* We questioned are they turning out someone who can do anything with an English degree, or do those jobs do not exist anymore, or do we need more specialization.
We questioned have 4 yr schools outlived their usefulness, other than the networking, your schools gravitas ( when you go to get a job ), and possible work study arrangements, what are you going their for?
Just like so many of our Quasi-Governmental organizations need to be re-engineered because they are failed models, SSI, Medicare, Medicaid, etc etc., it maybe fair to say the 4 year college model needs to be completely rethought....
Correct, I have met many a self made millionaire that made it on hard work and common sense. Anyone that thinks cheaper degrees is the answer to anything is crazy.
I was impressed when I first heard of this. There is no excuse for the high cost of college nowdays. When I entered University of Texas students took 15 hours a semester and finished in 4 years. Nowdays it takes them years more and the cost of loans is horrible.
Book were almost $100. each when my kids entered college and they were changed each year! There’s no excuse for that.
If the books hold ‘facts’, how can that change each year? It’s a money making scam.
Tenured Professors get grants and work on silly projects while ‘instructors’ teach the courses.
My local University of Houston college has 400 new Freshman enrolled this year. Motels have been converted into dorms to hold them. Fewer are ‘going away’ to the big colleges because of the costs.
Bump!
I hope this takes off.
I do a slow burn on this education scam.
And the lost potential is criminal.
So many lives ruined by “education for the children.”
I agree and this is another excellent idea by Governor Perry. Thank you for posting it CW!
Economics? So are you asserting that because something that is not subject to market forces is more expensive than it has to be somehow has more value than it would if it were more affordable?
If you are, you may want to brush up on economics yourself before castigating others.
I did not think that price was the only determining factor on whether or not an education was “easy to get”. If you are concerned about that, why not advocate tougher academic standards. This sure is beginning to turn into an elitist conversation. Let’s allow market forces to work on education prices. We may be surprised at the results.
Really? Coaches and the football program bring in much more money than they spend. Aren’t you the one questioning all of our economic knowledge? Last time I checked, no one was paying $50 a pop to watch a lecture on Saturday afternoon. Value is a function of economics. In the sports world, that is still accurate, alot more so than in the academic one.
The CEO does not determine his own value, the board of directors and shareholders do. As with most other jobs, you get paid what it is worth to the company to have you do that job. Please continue educating us on DU economic theory.
Not my man by any means...but this is a good start...if he can make it happen.
Reagan had a few big ideas and it turned out pretty well.
Perry’s big on education reform, EPA “green” climate bs, economy killing regulations, and over litigation and taxation.
Not bad (for starters) from where I’m sitting.
“Count me skeptical, but anytime a politician says he can make anything cheaper, I grab my wallet. I’m sure Perry will try something that’ll make college “cheaper”, but until the free market gets into colleges and universities, the rate will keep rising at 7.8% like it has for the past 30 years.”
If he wanted to make a statement, it wouldn’t be “let’s make public education cost less.” That’s the equivalent of “Let’s cut fraud and waste in government.” Perry isn’t even an incrementalist—this just rolled out come election year, but he’s been in office since 2000.
He should have stood up for vouchers in public schools. Texas education has been subpar for years—he should have pressed on this and made educators defend their crap record. That’d have been an idea worth working toward.
Who cares if starting salaries come down? They're starting salaries. Do you think there's a God-given right of a six-figure salary because you paid high priest of education 50K/yr for a degree? Nonsense.
If a business can't fill its labor needs for skilled workers because of an uneducated labor pool, they're not going to hire Americans to fill those positions anyway.
If you can lower the cost to get Americans those skills, companies can hire them instead of importing or outsourcing. If there's a glut in a particular industry, salaries will drop. That happens now. The market will adjust.
Artificially domestic constraining labor supply and keeping salaries artificially high by spiking costs of education is a dumb idea and that's what you advocate.
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