Posted on 04/08/2023 6:23:00 AM PDT by karpov
I recently turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare. Like other medical insurance, Medicare requires providers who accept reimbursement to agree to a set rate for the services they provide. Since Medicare is one of the largest healthcare payers in the country, it uses its size to negotiate very low reimbursement rates, sometimes even lower than the cost to provide services. Capping reimbursements for services is one of the reasons people have health insurance; the leverage of a big insurance provider helps to keep costs low. If Medicare paid whatever the provider billed, the system would soon go bankrupt. And yet, that is exactly what the Federal Student Loan program does with higher-education institutions.
The borrowing limits on the two main types of federal loans, Direct Subsidized Loans and Direct Unsubsidized Loans (both known as Stafford Loans), are set nationally, and loans are awarded to students by higher-ed institutions based on each institution’s total cost of attendance. There are limits to how much can be borrowed, but, by combining loan types and continuing on to graduate school, students can accumulate several hundred thousand dollars in debt.
The Federal Student Loan program is an artifact of the 1965 Higher Education Act and subsequent amendments to that act in 1992. In 1965-66, the average cost of attendance at a four-year, private institution was $1,128, which, adjusted for inflation, amounts to $8,500 in 2021-22 money. Lawmakers set the act’s initial borrowing limits in line with what institutions were then charging, and those limits are periodically updated by Congress.
The effect of linking borrowing limits to the cost of attendance has been to create a large subsidy for higher-ed institutions. As in the case of all subsidized goods, the result has been a rapid price increase designed to capture the subsidies.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
How about w e just get the dadgummed government completely out of the education business...all of it...from pre-School on.
The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution. Medicine is incidental to the revolution, so it can be treated harshly. Woke colleges are essential to the revolution, so they must be funded more than necessary to continue being a part of the revolution.
I say get rid of the government’s interference in higher ed. The free market would demand higher ed to produce higher quality education at lower costs.
Treat Student-Loan Borrowing Like CAPITALISM. It’s time for the federal government to reduce higher-ed costs by GETTING OUT OF THE WAY.
Lol! Most of what we call education in the U.S. is just jobs for Democrats.
They’ll scream bloody murder if there is any real attempt to reign in their abuse of the American taxpayers and tuition payers.
How would the colleges pay for the fitness center, “lazy river” swimming pool, airplane for the football team’s away games, free tuition for faculty’s kids, paid sabbaticals every second year, more decorative deans than actual classroom professors?
Yes, the student loans used to be done by private banks, with government guarantees.
But our “great” president Clinton basically nationalized them.
Nowadays, they are just our taxpayer money. The money we do not have, part of the trillions of government debt!
Everyone is blaming everyone else for the outrageous costs of going to college. Well, almost everyone. Nobody blames the damn colleges and universities and the dumbass “perfesers” who demand the big bucks and are not very smart individuals. The real bandits here are the colleges and universities and the idiots who went to college to get a job “working” there. Their costs are out of control. It’s time for tuition reform and cost controls. Talk about price gouging. Those people are the kings and queens of price gouging.
As has been said, get the Federal government out of the education business.
That being said I used the GI bill to help fund my education and I’m sure my employer got a tax deduction for my tutition re-imbursement, so I earned a degree, taxpayer funded in a way, but I earned that with my time and efforts for my employers.
I worked my way through University, all private schools.
I have no respect for those that want a “free” education.
Maybe the government simply limit the loans it will issue or cover? Let the schools adust prices or issue the loans themselves, which a bankrupt student could leave behind. Anyway, let the market set the rate instead of the unlimited because of federal-sponsored loans.
Trouble is, the feds want to keep their hand in it to control and corrupt youth, as well as to buy Democrat votes from the education establishment.
It will be a struggle to get the feds out of education, but it will be worth it.
The gop had the greatest chance in the history of the republic to end or change public school during covid. Instead of change, they forced kids back to failing schools or wanted to rush kids back to such failures instead of completely changing them.
If you want to lower the cost of college simply STOP offering government loans and grants and the price will fall dramatically to what the market will actually support.
And foreign influence.
they are simply doing what any business would do.
If you are selling widgets and people are willing to spend $1 for them, but the government gives people $10 to buy widgets, the price of widgets will move towards...
?
11 dollars!!!
(the $1 people were willing to spend + the $10 of government subsidies)
OK, Let's start with Administrators Salaries, Retirements and Benefits, then move on to Dean's Salaries, Retirements and Benefits, then Professor's Salaries, Retirements and Benefits, then Associate Professor's Salaries, Retirements and Benefits, then Staff Salaries, Retirements and Benefits.
Then we can review Board Compensation, Retirements and Benefits.
Then we can impose a 90% Federal income tax on any profits on Tuition over 5%.
I suspect most prospective students would be able to afford tuition without subsidy.
History tells us where student loans are headed. The banks own the government. Students are defaulting like crazy. The banks want their money. The corrupt government will give them taxpayer money.
Higher Education should be austere and should be populated by thise who need (and get) nothing more than thirst for knowledge.
The quest for knowledge should have no distractions like “climbing walls”, parties, chef cookery, or TV contracts.
It is and should be all-consuming and for only the worthy who aspire to such enlightenment.
Todays “higher ed” taught by the miseducated for the benefit of the uneducable is a leveraged fraud for the most part.
There are many solutions, but at the most basic level, its simply a hedonistic indulgence fueled by gov’t loans for mere political indoctrination.
This isnt helpful in solving our current social, political, and economic ills.
Most of these kids will be starving in 5 years, staring at their worthless diplomas on the walls of their shanties.
Most problems in the US will be solved when we dont have the money to spend badly on ill conceived programs, of which, student loans are only one of a panoply of shame and folly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.