The below sums it up -- one of the few times I've *ever* agreed with Doonesbury:
Cheers!
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.
The below sums it up -- one of the few times I've *ever* agreed with Doonesbury:
Cheers!
Hog wash, go to a state college or university...they are cheep.
Send him to India, 4k for 4 years, Food and Roof
We continue to import workers from the third world, and companies have been hiring these workers for executive positions, nothing wrong with it anymore.
Thank you! My son is going to college this fall. He will stay in state and we will pay for it. What ever happened to your kid getting a job to help pay for it? There are also thousands of scholarships available.
Nothing wrong with junior college for the first couple of years. The credits are usually fully transferable to finish undergraduate and graduate work elsewhere with a overall great savings of money.
Nothing wrong with junior college for the first couple of years. The credits are usually fully transferable to finish undergraduate and graduate work elsewhere with a overall great savings of money.
a) That college is not affordable or
b) Students are not ready?
Not as cheap as they once were. I paid my own way through college by working. NO loans.
I’m not so sure that can be done today.
Even though many won’t have the funds to pay “up front”, unless things are tremendously different from now (and of course they could be), most students who really want to attend college are eligible for student loans and/or work study. Really good students qualify for scholarships.
That said, as a part time college instructor, I’m amazed at how the learners’ attitudes have changed over the past decade. On my recent instructor evaluations, some students stated they thought it was unfair to have to take notes in class. They claimed doing so was distracting and “boring”. So, basically, they wanted the PowerPoint handouts given to them, but not really discussed/reviewed, and then to be entertained during class time.
I think many educators have caved in to the demands for watered-down curriculum and expectations. Some may fear negative student ratings. Not sure if we’re past the point of no return, but some days it seems like it.
p.s. Watch “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”
How many Ivy League MBA’s does it take to run a Wall Street firm into the ground?
Yeah but they stay home, continue to eat your food and take up space.
The large Mexican/Central American youth population, combined with the plateauing and lower middle class whites and the continued academic underachievement of American blacks are the keys to understanding why so many schools are failing. It has nothing to do with "liberal" versus "conservative' (as the lib families in my area push their kids to be academic overachievers) or "religious" versus "secular." Its a question of culture and the importance of achievement in the academic sphere.
Liberals will never attack ‘Big Education’ with the same enthusiasm in which they attack ‘Big’ everything else. Stink’n hypocrites!
Yes, why doesn’t the author consider University of Connecticut, since she live in Connecticut?
Total tuition, room, board, and fees at the main campus: $18,842.
Total tuition and fees at satellite campuses: $7,754. (Have the kid commute from home.)
http://www.admissions.uconn.edu/tuition/index.php
(I do agree with her main argument that college costs are out of control, but she seems to be limiting her possibilities to private universities.)
Get the first two years out of the road at a community college. Even cheaper.
True but what is. They are still cheep. Get a job borrow money, if you want to go go.
I worked my way through, took six years but so what. The day I graduated I only owed $500.
He could join the military, get the G.I. Bill and go to college for free, but his mother would probably rather he shave his head and join Hiri Krishna. Also, there’s a college in the Missouri Ozarks where all students have to work for their tuition: http://www.cofo.edu/future.asp
This is ludicrous. Yes, if you’re determined for some reason to send your child to Harvard, you may have a problem. But if you have serious financial issues, then send him to a junior college for two years and then on to State U. Believe me, five years down the road his employers are not going to care where he got his undergraduate degree. It’s really only important where he goes to graduate school, not undergrad. To finance the undergraduate education he can get grants, scholarships, and loans to pay for it, live in the dorm, and hold one or two part-time jobs.
To finance grad school he will probably have to do a TAship or research assistantship and scramble around for some additional money, but so what. Kids are young and energetic and most of ‘em need to spend less time drinking and partying anyway.
Trust me, if our one-parent family can do it, anybody can do it. People need to stop whining.
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