Posted on 01/18/2009 10:34:57 AM PST by Graybeard58
Ever since my son was a tot, I have squirreled away as much as I could muster for his college education.
Education is a priority in our family, but every year that goes by, it becomes clearer that nothing I could ever amass will dent what it will cost to send him to college. Despite his desire, college may be out of the question for him — and for anybody else earning less than an auto executive's salary.
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education reported recently that the rising cost of education has put it virtually out-of-reach for most Americans. By the time my son, 7, is college age, he may take his place among the first American generation to be less educated than its parents.
Indeed, that has already happened. We have fewer college-age kids enrolled in college than six other industrialized countries and even fewer American kids complete their degree. The kids in Japan, Ireland, Korea and France far outrank us in college completion rates. Why? Did you ever talk to an American high school graduate and compare it to the conversation you have with a European? It's like the difference between David Frost and Maury Povich.
Today's 25- to 34-year-olds are actually less educated than their Baby Boomer elders. Only 39 percent of adults 25 to 34 hold an associate's degree or higher in the U.S. Compare that to Canada, where the figure is 55 percent, or Korea, where the figure is 53 percent.
That's because while median family income has risen 147 percent from 1982 to 2007 in the U.S., the cost of college tuition and fees has soared 439 percent. How can anyone possibly afford that? They can't. Student borrowing has doubled in the last 10 years and the percent of a family's income it eats up is bigger than ever. A private, four-year institution will devour 76 percent of the income of a median American family.
"The middle class has been financing [college education] through debt," Patrick M.Callahan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, told The New York Times. "The scenario has been that families that have a history of sending kids to college will do whatever it takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt."
In Connecticut, for instance, we do a great job at preparing our kids for college — as long as they're rich. This state has the ignoble distinction of having the widest achievement gaps between rich and poor than any other state in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Education. So we get an "A" for preparing kids for school and an "F" for making it affordable, which is a bit like teaching a kid to ride a bike, and then not giving him one to ride on.
This might be merely onerous if the whole value of a college degree hadn't become so dubious.
Sure, all kinds of reports will tell you how much difference a college degree makes in terms of how much salary its recipients command, but, again, talk to some of these students and they'll make your eyebrows curl.
One study reported that less than half of college seniors knew that Yorktown was the battle that ended the American Revolution. A similar number could name the reason NATO was formed.
Not long ago, a college professor friend of mine wrote me about trying to prepare his students for a mid-term exam, which would rely heavily on the readings he assigned. "I've never really liked reading," one of his students sniffed. "I don't see the point in it." She added that she didn't think it was "fair" that, at the college level, her professor placed such an emphasis on reading.
Yes, the world is a cruel place.
Nobody who's visited a college dorm lately can deny that the place has been spruced up. In my day, the places looked like Soviet-era gymnasiums. Now they look like suites at the Doubletree. And the potentates presiding over these glittering dominions receive a king's ransom.
In November, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that presidents at 12 private universities pulled down more than $1 million last year. (So embarrassed were several college presidents over their income that they actually gave back some of their salaries after the report came out.)
If this country believes, as Thomas Jefferson did, that education is the great equalizer, it needs to pull the plug on fripperies and sinecures and start doing a better job at teaching its kids.
Because at this price, it just isn't worth it.
Reach Tracey O'Shaughnessy at tosh@rep-am.com.
Well, sir, what we have found in our family is that sometimes there is a very substantial shortfall, a distance between what grants, loans, jobs, parental help, and scholarship can provide, and what the costs of Harvard really are. My kids’ father and I could put together a financial package to put our daughter into a school that cost $35000 a year. We could not find the financing to pay more, and believe me, we were determined and imaginative in looking for sources of income. Some middle-income people, or people who have lost savings due to personal setbacks, can fall through the scholarship cracks.
There was a story about this in the Wall Street Journal just yesterday. Some schools are reaching out to help a bit, but none of them can bridge the gap for all the kids who just lost parental support due to the recession.
What I meant is that Harvard has such a large endowment, that a student bright enough to gain admission there is almost certainly eligible for grants and scholarships that will foot the bill.
but we never had enough money to save.....we had bills and kids to feed and we tried to put some money away for retirement because we weren't going to get a nice civil service pension.....and look how the retirement crap has worked out.....geesh....
but what is doable for kids is simply having them take out whatever loans they can, and supplement that every month......it can be done if they go to a state college....
philosophically....a college degree is meaningless however, unless one has some skill training and ambition
keep fighting the good fight....someday hopefully, it’ll make a difference......
It’s amazing what one can do, if one happens to find himself in a career one enjoys.
I sort of fell into computers, and to this day, I love it. In fact, it’s a bit after 1:00am, and I’m about to leave the office for home, because I got called in to work due to a server failure. It’s a pain, but the feeling of finding, diagnosing, and fixing the problem is what this job is all about for me.
I did go to college, but never finished. It definitely helped me along with my career, but it would have been far more helpful had I finished. I know that I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get to where I am today.
But that’s the key. I know a number of people who are doing quite well today, because of hard work and their drive to succeed. I’ve got a buddy who’s a partner at a dental lab. He’s making about $80,000 a year now. But he started at a lab, making dentures for minimum wage. He never did finish college, but he helped build a business over the last 12 years, and has since become a partner in that business.
Congratulations on having a career that give you satisfaction. Those of us who have that are incredibly lucky. There are far too many people who dread going to work every day.
Mark
>>College is expensive. Unless one is in the “special” class: minority, illegal, poor.<<
And female, as you correctly pointed out-—and this is not directed at your daughter, by the way.
Why the insult?
“My son’s different...of course he is. He is the exception. If you are paying for him, you are not doing him any real favors in the long run.”
You obviously have issues about parents providing for their children.
Please refrain from further FReepmails/posts to me.
I am through with you.
(Chuckles to self) I remember the look of stunned dismay on the face of one of my step sons as he received his first paycheck. "What are all these deductions for?," he asked.
"Well you know those social programs you are always telling us that people need so badly? Guess who gets to pay for them?"
Reality dawned, bright and cold as a January morning in Michigan. "They take money out of MY check to pay for that?"
Yep.
As for the indoctrination part, I agree that this very much depends on the major and the profs. I was fortunate to have had a few older history instructors who made absolutely no apologies for their more conservative statements.
Like my dad always said, "If you are smart enought to go to college, you are smart enough to figure out how to pay for it."
I'm not even drinking...yet...
Exactly. I'm a college professor at a state U. In my large undergraduate course, only about half of the students actually take notes. The rest just sit there. "Education" has become "Edutainment".
-Clint Eastwood in The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The disrespect shown by some students is appalling.
An acquaintance of mine was screamed at by an undergraduate who was unhappy with his grade. He used the F word and threatened him. I asked the professor what he did about it and he said nothing. If he reported it, nothing would have happened and the mud would have stuck on him, not the student.
Another acquaintance flunked a student who plagiarized a paper. (Passed in a paper identical to another student in the class.) Both flunked. One of the students made a formal complaint to the dean’s office and demanded the professor be fired.
Only a very few students are openly disrespectful. If they talk, its usually behind your back, almost never to your face. This was the first time it happened to me—kind of a wake up call. And you have to be very careful how you handle it.
Is the better option to eliminate placement exams and let students fail? Or is it prudent to test incoming freshmen to insure they meet school standards for 100-level math, science and English courses?
Or, might colleges and universities (who care about their standards) require placement exams as a function of the application process. This would weed out potential poor performers before they distract professors and lower curricula standards.
Too many high schools are passing their mediocre students (some with high GPAs and honors) on to no-longer unsuspecting institutions.
During the time I was at UCSD, the "affirmative action" program reserved 5% of the admissions for minorities who didn't meet the usual GPA/SAT requirements. Over a 5 year evaluation period there was an 85% drop out rate from that group of students. That is a travesty. That 5% band was wasted. Qualified students were turned away to make room for that 5% group with an 85% dropout rate. Thankfully, that program ended with Prop 209.
I have no problem with "outreach" programs to recruit minorities...as long as they meet the GPA/SAT criteria. You want the recruits to succeed. Admitting unqualified candidates is a disservice to the applicants and qualified applicants who could have succeeded.
A poor admissions policy at a taxpayer supported school is a waste of taxpayer money as well.
Bingo on that. I’m surprised no one had really covered that aspect of this, until your post.
Kids just aren’t getting the preparation in high school. If I were Czar, I’d start addressing the problem by dismantling the Colleges of Education.
Ouch is right.
While I’m sure she’s a very nice girl, from a pure economics perspective, that makes no sense whatsoever, neither from an individual economics perspective, nor from a societal perspective.
In general, too much of the college system is divorced from real economics, with easy Federally-guaranteed student loans and such. (I realize that wasn’t her situation, just commenting a on related larger issue)
I know a younger guy who has a house’s worth of debt for a Vandy Law degree, and even he is having a tough time of it. Starting out with that much debt is no fun, even with a well-paying job.
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.