NYTimes - The Lows of Higher Ed

On September14th the NYTimes had a good article on the cost of college education and student borrowing by Gail Collins.

Here is an excerpt:

"Higher education is still the key to most good jobs, but the nation is starting to ask some questions about the way we finance it. Shouldn’t there be more of a match between the cost of school and the potential earning power of the graduates? Who speaks for the art history majors? And why is tuition so high, anyway? (Parents, if your kid is planning to take out student loans, you might want to avoid any college where the dorm rooms are nicer than your house.)"

The higher education system has become too expensive and entrenched.  This debate will only grow until the economics of college education come back down to earth.

Here is a link to the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/opinion/collins-the-lows-of-higher-ed.html?comments#permid=139




Here is my response:

I think this is a mess we all have created, students, families, schools and governments. 

State and local governments pay $75 billion a year to public universities to fund their losses. The Delta Project estimates that the cost of each 2-yr degree granted at a public university it about $46,000 per graduate. 

There is about $30 billion dollars a year donated to college endowments, much of which goes to elite schools with big endowments who use the money to fund the faculty and administration life style and amenities like high end dorms to attract quality students. Not much really helps poor at risk students, why we let this be tax deductible is beyond me.

Schools say education is a great investment but seldom counsel students on what borrowing money means and what they can expect to earn in the future.

Parents have given their kids bad advice and said college is a time to enjoy and find yourself - that was OK at $5,000 a year maybe, at $30,000 - $50,000 no way.

Students don't really want to be informed or responsible very often for their education and future - mom and dad have been doing that.

And lastly the government who tells us our schools are the best (as our college attainment rankings internationally drop), that our community colleges are cheap (ignoring the money we taxpayers give them directly to fund their annual losses), is pandering to education workers to get their votes, as they did with groups like auto workers in the past. We know where that got us.