Posted on 06/26/2019 3:25:06 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The federal government currently holds around $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loansup from only $500 million in 2007. Undoubtedly, the federal governmentand taxpayershave an enormous stake in higher education and bureaucrats in the Department of Education see their role as protecting the system against bad actors.
During the Obama years, the Department was dominated by people who regarded for-profit higher education with hostility. They portrayed the whole for-profit sector as a scam to take advantage of hapless students. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan set the tone, quoted in the New York Times that for-profit colleges take advantage of students and leave taxpayers with the bill.
Education Department officials proceeded against several of the largest for-profit colleges with all the administrative power at their disposal. The result was the closure of the targeted schools, disruption of the education of many thousands of students enrolled in them, and huge losses that taxpayers will have to bear for the cancellation of student loans.
There are good reasons to doubt that the Obama Administrations regulatory crusade against for-profit colleges was sensible policy.
As a starting point, it is clear that the profit motive produces enormous benefits. In particular, managers of a for-profit firm have much better personal financial incentives (as compared with non-profit managers) to 1) look for ways to cut costs and 2) look for ways to innovate and out-perform their competitors. Indeed, the results of the long competition between capitalism and socialism strongly confirm this difference in performance.
Education is not fundamentally different from other services where for-profit competition leads to high quality and low costs. For-profit competition in higher education should generate gains for consumers the same as it does in other industries.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
>>If one accepts the notion that the government should encourage as many students as possible to go to college,
I dont.
What are the size of those tax free endowments?
One reason for lower graduation rates is the higher academic standards at private schools. They won't graduate students who can't do the job they were training for.
Saw this in the school my son ("Ace") attended. The attrition rate was very high. As it should be for airline pilots!
I agree that which you posit in your response...
In my view as one who has spent decades on the professional (corporate) realm of training I look at what is currently being referred to as “Education” and wonder how we got here.
My daughter via grades and hard work was accepted at The University of Southern California and graduated in 4 years. I note this as such a feat in todays world is unusual, especially those who understand the rigor a private institution can have as it has no linkage to State funded and managed facilities (ex Cal State and University of Cal - Fill in location)
In short the lower level of “Education” being foisted upon our children is almost completely infested with Union based “Teachers” who for the most part have never worked in the discipline which they align themselves. Typically they may have graduated from one of the aforementioned institutions with little more than theoretical knowledge of the latest Fad in teaching the subject (think CommonCore, Whole Language and other garbage)
In the model as it exists The System is paid a daily amount per student, called ADA (Average Daily Allowance) or similar. Factor the number of students, days of school in a year and you arrive at a number of how much each “butt” is worth to them. Are they measured for the quality of that which they purport to teach?
Answer pretty much across the board is NO. So for the 13 years our sons and daughters are placed in their care they are supposed to ready them for the next stage in life, You know, get a job or better still a Career!
But no, the Beast must be fed and so their compatriots at the next level are ready and waiting to further shape them and Jumpin Jehoshaphat we keep paying taxes for the first cadre and the second one needs loans to attend their venerable institution. And if they meet the right “check boxes” they can offer student loans to allow the now undereducated student to proceed on their journey.
As I stated earlier in the commercial world where I dwelt if you cannot do the work then you may be shown the door as what you learned is insufficient or unfocused on what the company needs. I am sure the reader will not be surprised that a student who majored in Liberal Arts (aka Advanced Liberal methods indoctrination) has a hard time finding meaningful employment sufficient to pay off the ridiculous amount they paid to get there. A bit of insight from a friend who was a professional recruiter and expert for match making what the company needed and applicants. She referred to this syndrome thusly, in the recruiting world College is the New High School. In other words what you used to have leaving the K-12 gambit takes 4 more years (at least)and significant debt to attain.
Welcome to The Edutocracy, and no one is watching the store to see or measure the actual Quality of “Education” provided at any level. Case in point, 75% of African American Males “Graduating” in the California Schools System cannot read even after 13 years in their “care”
So in closing for the moment this must change, the idea that we all should take on that burden is a clear deviant attempt by The Edutocracy to lay off their sins on the rest of us and as usual say “but it’s for the children” and hand them over to their compatriots in “Higher Ed” to further mold them in their chosen field where again few if any have ever held a job and actually used it as a profession!
I say NO
My daughter paid off all of her loans from USC by herself and they were considerable. She was a very advanced student in HS and earned that spot. College may be to the Edutocracy “The New High School” where they get paid all the way through the experience without regard or measurement of the actual value and quality of that for which they are paid.
And I care not for those who take basket weaving or other such worthless paths towards a degree almost guaranteeing unemployability.
Decisions have consequences....
Choose wisely!
Seems like the field would benefit from some open statistics.
It would not violate IRS privacy rules for them to publish statistics of median income, as of X years after graduation, of people who went to various schools, broken down by school and major.
Let students and parents decide for themselves where to spend money.
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