As long as we have Guaranteed Student Loans, available to any person who wants to borrow money today, and is unaware of his inability to re-pay it tomorrow; the colleges will continue to raise tuition. No matter what the cost of tuition, students will rally to borrow money from the GSL program - without a thought to their career or future earnings.
I know of “Theater” students, working on their “Masters” and with over $240,000 in school loans; that are now volunteering (as in ‘free’) at local theaters, and making minimum wage who are just now begining to realize that they will be forever poor. They spent this money on a degree of “Let’s pretend”, and now are realizing that this degree costs ‘real money’ - money that could have bought and furnished a nice home. Now, they can’t afford to marry and start a family - they have the equivalent of a large house payment, for a degree that is utterly worthless.
And meanwhile, these taxpayer funded schools of eduation are raising tutition yet again, and getting fresh crops of suckers.
Cut GSL, and you will cut 90% of the problem. If a student has to earn and justify his education; and has to present a business case to further his career - you will wind up with students getting a degree that actually means something.
My college roommate (this was in the 70s), graduated with a Theater Arts BA, within a year, discovered it wasn’t all that marketable, so went to school again and has been gainfully employed since as a Phlebotomist.
We are raising our children so that they understand that a liberal arts degree in Underwater Basket-weaving is a useless degree that will not support them in the future. They will need to get an education that will support them and keep them gainfully employed.
The difficulty in doing this is trying to look down the road and determine which fields will be the ones that will be in demand.
I don’t know what the economy will look like for my children and what employers will be looking for in the future.
I don’t want them to be educators because I hate teachers unions. I don’t want them to become doctors because I think Obamacare will make that line of work very difficult. I don’t want them to just get a degree that will be in high demand that will keep them employed, but won’t fulfill them as human beings. At the same time I don’t want them to keep their heads in the clouds and not be financially secure.
I should have taken up tea-leaves reading long ago. (Sigh.)
My across-the-street neighbor told me she’s looking at going to St Mary’s University Law School (my alma mater). When I graduated, tuition was an ungodly $406/hr. She called - it’s now $960/hr. Stuned my beiber, I’ll tell ya - especially considering what it’s turned into: a mill for “social justice” types who have trouble passing the bar exam because they’re not being required to take the courses that are ON THE BAR EXAM.
Ridiculous.