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Degree of frustration with cost of college (Outcry grows nationwide on soaring tuitions)
Washington Times ^ | 12/26/2011 | By Ben Wolfgang

Posted on 12/27/2011 10:02:12 AM PST by SeekAndFind

As tuition costs skyrocket and graduates walk away saddled with ever-rising amounts of debt, American colleges now face a choice: Remain a part of the problem, or begin contributing to a solution.

The average cost to attend a public university shot up 8.3 percent this year, while private institutions raised their prices 4.3 percent. Over the past decade, tuition rates have risen 72 percent, and universities are now taking more heat than ever from government officials, education specialists and middle-class families, all of whom think the higher-education sector hasn’t done enough to reverse the trend.

If the current trajectory continues, getting a college degree could soon become cost-prohibitive for average Americans.

“They need to do their part. Right now, they aren’t doing enough,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden said during a speech to Florida high school students this month. “Right now, there are no real incentives to dissuade colleges and universities from continuing to raise tuition. It’s not going to be easy, but there’s no excuse for complacency.”

Many aren’t surprised by the reluctance to tackle out-of-control tuition costs. Universities, along with the professors they employ, have grown accustomed to an open checkbook. Instructors at public institutions earn, on average, about $70,000 per year, yet many teach only one or two classes each semester. College presidents, often pressured to keep up with their peers, sign off on expensive new fitness centers, performing-arts facilities or top-of-the-line dining halls, options deemed more important than reducing tuition for their customers.

But the students keep coming. Since most borrow money or depend on government assistance to attend college, families have become numb to the increases. Diplomas are deemed necessary for financial success, and there’s only one place to get them.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: college; cost; education; inflation; overpriced; scam; tuition
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1 posted on 12/27/2011 10:02:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Best decision we ever made was locking in the costs back when.


2 posted on 12/27/2011 10:04:39 AM PST by bgill (The Obama administration is staging a coup. Wake up, America, before it's too late.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Do these students think that shiny new Athletic Complex was going to be free?


3 posted on 12/27/2011 10:05:58 AM PST by GlockThe Vote (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11)
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To: SeekAndFind

I honestly don’t know why this has taken so long. This raping of our youth and families has been growing for decades.


4 posted on 12/27/2011 10:07:55 AM PST by DManA ( ex)
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To: SeekAndFind
Over the past decade, tuition rates have risen 72 percent

Back in the day, the year after I graduated the tuition doubled from $4/hr to $8/hr. There were no breaking headlines then but then $8 wasn't a house payment like tuition is today.

5 posted on 12/27/2011 10:08:55 AM PST by bgill (The Obama administration is staging a coup. Wake up, America, before it's too late.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Stop the Protest and protect the faculties! If the money does not flow in to the colleges, how can it flow to the faculties and thence to the Democrat coffers?


6 posted on 12/27/2011 10:10:01 AM PST by I am Richard Brandon
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To: SeekAndFind

And then there’s the incredibly expensive textbooks. I started at a community college and got my associate’s there, and had the G.I. Bill, so that helped. But by the time I got to grad school, I could hear the debt machine going “Cha-Ching!”


7 posted on 12/27/2011 10:10:54 AM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: SeekAndFind
If the current trajectory continues, getting a college degree could soon become cost-prohibitive for average Americans.

Good.

The average American doesn't NEED a college degree. It's just funneling money away from the middle class to the "elites" in exchange for filling their heads with idiotic ideas.

Unless you're studying engineering, medicine, etc. you'd be a lot better off without all that brainwashing, not to mention the five or six figures of debt you'll accumulate.

8 posted on 12/27/2011 10:11:08 AM PST by End Times Sentinel (In Memory of my dear Friend Henry Lee II)
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To: SeekAndFind
BIG EDUCATION is BIG BUSINESS in AMERICA...

Angela Davis

9 posted on 12/27/2011 10:12:41 AM PST by Baynative (The penalty for not participating in politics is you will be governed by your inferiors.)
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To: DManA

Time for a serious boycott !!!

Everybody keep their kid home for a year.

How much could it cost. A lot less than sending them back to school.

“You want to go to school ? For a year you mow the lawn,cut the grass,and clean the house, and anything else I can think of for you to do.”

Perhaps if no students showed up next fall, the schools would learn a valuable lesson. Capitalism.


10 posted on 12/27/2011 10:12:45 AM PST by maine yankee (I got my Governor at 'Marden's')
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To: SeekAndFind

If you’re paying list price for college, you’re doing it wrong.
If you’re willing to pay whatever list price is, colleges are willing to charge it.

Beginning economics:
1. Prices adjust to match supply to demand.
2. A thing is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Tuition is going up because people pay it.


11 posted on 12/27/2011 10:16:26 AM PST by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: A_perfect_lady

My HS son took a college course at the local University. No book. All the materials were online.

It was on Chinese literature. Coincidentally the teacher’s name was Cha Ching.

(sorry about that).


12 posted on 12/27/2011 10:16:45 AM PST by DManA ( ex)
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To: ctdonath2

Government subsidies of tuition has contributed to it too.


13 posted on 12/27/2011 10:18:20 AM PST by DManA ( ex)
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To: SeekAndFind

Education is free.
Certification is expensive.

Don’t confuse the two.


14 posted on 12/27/2011 10:19:40 AM PST by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: SeekAndFind

pigs
fat pigs slopping at the trough
fat stupid pigs slopping at the trough
Good. Students, go ahead and HOLD THIER FEET TO THE FIRE, you are being led to the slaughter, taught NOTHING by TAs who are not able to speak English clearly and fed garbage called food, live in a cell more expensive than an apartment and your parents are charged through the nose for it

When I went to school, it was $750 a semester.

Oh and the books, Six hundred for books, are you serious? What a racket.


15 posted on 12/27/2011 10:20:43 AM PST by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: SeekAndFind

“If you think education is expensive, try getting a job without our blessing.” — Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University (just slightly paraphrased) :)


16 posted on 12/27/2011 10:22:33 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: SeekAndFind

Tuition will always rise to soak up the amount of government aid available. The solution is more government aid. < / sarcasm >


17 posted on 12/27/2011 10:22:38 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: maine yankee

“Perhaps if no students showed up next fall, the schools would learn a valuable lesson. Capitalism.”

Here, Here! And just think we would have delayed their indoctrination for a year and maybe have a last chance to show them that their so called “professors” are not the paragons of higher learning that they think they are. The other thing that needs to happen is to get the Federal Government out of the business of “loaning” students money for college. This is the real cha ching for the profs. Every year their “administrators” just kick up the tuition, raise the salaries, and on it goes! Then the government increases the loans to cover this disgraceful behavior.


18 posted on 12/27/2011 10:25:03 AM PST by vette6387 (Enough Already!)
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: SeekAndFind

1) end federal loans


20 posted on 12/27/2011 10:30:24 AM PST by ROTB (Christian sin breeds enemies for the USA. If you're a Christian, stop sinning, and spread the Word..)
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