Posted on 09/16/2013 6:37:02 AM PDT by MichCapCon
It seems counterintuitive to some people, but government subsidies can harm the very people they are meant to help. So it is with the way Michigan funds higher education.
Consider that 12 percent of college graduates in 1970 came from the families in the bottom 25 percent of income earners, but today that number is 7 percent, according to Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University and an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Meanwhile, the six-year graduation rate is about 55 percent. That is, nearly half of students do not get a four-year degree within six years.
Total federal financial assistance, mostly aimed to help the poorest students, has skyrocketed. This funding has increased 10-fold adjusted for inflation, from about $20 billion in 1970 to about $200 billion in 2013, according to Vedder. Adjusting for enrollment still yields a substantial increase.
Not coincidentally, the cost of college also increased exponentially.
In Michigan, it is true that direct state appropriations to public colleges and universities are down, but that ignores all of the other ways government subsidizes public universities — like the federal money listed above, subsidized loans, money for buildings and land, etc.
And this has not helped students. The Center for Michigan, through its publication Bridge magazine, has published the graduation rates of most colleges in the state. There is not enough information to see a trend, but most people would be surprised at how low the numbers are. Perhaps the most extreme example: Wayne State University, the state's third-largest school of higher education, had a graduation rate of only 7.5 percent for African-American students in 2011, the most recent year that data was available.
Increasing education subsidies have distorted the incentives for universities and students. Schools are incentivized to raise prices while students make decisions they would not normally have made, for example, picking a different major, starting college earlier or staying in school longer. Some students might have chosen a different job that provides a comfortable living without a college degree — and without all the debt.
Those calling for a limit or an end to government funding of education (particularly the direct appropriations like in Michigan) often are accused of being cold-hearted, as if we don't want poor people to have good jobs and good lives.
But it is no good for anyone for the government to encourage degrees that are never finished or have no marketable value. This money can better be left in the pockets of individuals to spend creating jobs in other ways.
Cut out the taxpayer funding and forward looking companies will pay for many USEFUL scholarships.
6-year graduation rate?
If the funding and money issues are based on six-years to get a BA then that is the first place you need to start!
The standard time to get a residential, aka full-time student, BA should be 4 years not six. If the colleges have to spend time teaching “bonehead” English or math then their (the college’s) acceptance criteria is too low.
After the American colligate education system has gone back to a 4-year bachelor’s degree as the standard then we can hold a “discussion” on the cost of a college degree. Until then no valid comparison can be made; until then you are comparing pineapples (one a fruit the other a grenade)!
Not to people with more than two brain cells in a row.
There HAVE been suggestions to make Engineering degrees 5-year programs, but only because the required background calls for an additional courseload well above the “standard” 15-credit semester. I can recall MY days in engineering school, it was usually 18-20 credits per semester. . .
I don’t think most people make the connection between subsidies and the cost of college.
You hear these news reports about college costs increasing, and then you also hear politicians out there, saying we need to increase financial aid programs, etc. to help with rising costs. What people don’t realize is that part of the reason for the steep rise in college costs is because this financial aid is available to pay for these increases.
The costs of college have risen far more than the rate of inflation in the last 30 years or so. There are various factors involved. One is financial aid paying the freight, and another is that many colleges have added so many administrators, diversity officers, useless academic programs, luxury dorms, etc. that they would not be spending money on, if not for the gravy train of financial aid paying the freight.
SIL got his engineering degree from U Florida in 5.5 years. He finished when his Dad offered him conditional support and told him to get rid of his car. He makes six figures today. I got my first baccalaureate degree 10 years after HS graduation. I had several interruptions before spending 3 years at U Missouri in a Navy commissioning program. I have a second bachelor’s and a master’s now.
Some people take longer to grow up. They should not grow up under full financial assistance.
And I have never heard anyone in Congress, at all, ever, directly addressing the need to do something about the out of control federal grants and subsidies given to colleges. Nowadays college students feel 5 star restaraunts and dorms that resemble 5 star hotels are a basic human right.
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