The more the government “helps” - the more unaffordable college gets...
I have seven kids, three have bachelors degrees without loans, one is a year away and will graduate without loans, 5,6, and 7 TBD.
So, up until now, I have no skin in the game, except as a taxpayer.
But I’m not sure you all realize what a slimy racket this is.
College administrations and boards are critically dependent on the loan industry to maintain their lifestyles (which include their preferred inefficient and costly methods of information transfer AND include “keeping the kids happy”).
An acceptance letter nowadays always says “Because you are wonderful, you have been granted an aid package of $XX,XXX”. It never discloses that 80% of this “aid package” consists of loans.
My oldest daughter managed to enroll as a freshman and we did not know she had acquired a loan of $5000 (as opposed to a scholarship) until the first tuition bill came. It took months to remove the loan from her account, once the Feds disburse the money to a college it is almost impossible to give it back.
My wife, my daughter, and I are all good readers, and we always read the fine print. Take it from me, this “loan” was somehow applied for by the college and paid by the government without our knowledge.
The whole college system is rotten to the core. Nothing bad would happen if student places (”seats”) were reduced by 90%.
It is the only business that has 10 000 unsold units every year AND has cultivated a sense of scarcity verging on panic among its target consumers.
If you just had one single state which appointed some financial expert to take apart the entire budget apparatus of their public university system, and latch onto terminating one-quarter of all employees (those without value), and then halt all sports costs....you’d see a typical year of cost drop a significant amount.