College Costs Soar in Weak Economy

FOXNews.com ^ | October 23, 2001 | AP

[jalisco555]

My oldest is a junior in high school so you can imagine how thrilled I was to read this.

[MasonGal]

Our oldest is a college freshman, who rec'd. a partial scholarship--we have 2 other sons - one is a freshman in high school - and a 4th-grader. I cannot WAIT to see what it will be like when the youngest goes.

WHEW

[Alberta's Child]

"The best weapon against fear and uncertainty is knowledge," Caperton said in a statement with the report.

I agree. And the best weapon against knowledge is a college education -- and an expensive college education, at that.

[SlickWillard]

The College Board reported that a year at a four-year public campus now averages $9,008, while the price tag at a private college is $23,578.

The cost of a public university education is also $23,578 (or more) per year, but the elitist snobs who run our society play this game of pretend - the rules of which require them to ignore the massive subsidies, extracted from taxes on working stiffs, that allow yuppies to send their children to state schools for next to nothing.

[Coop]

My oldest is a junior in high school so you can imagine how thrilled I was to read this.

The key to avoiding these money problems is to raise dumb, lazy children.

[Aquinasfan]

I think your average bachelors degree is worth well over $100. Maybe as much as $200.

[KC_Conspirator]

When is O'Reilly going to do an expose on how the Universities are "gouging" us? He's so intent on gas and airline companies I doubt he will take a look.

[Surge-on]

College Costs Soar in Weak Economy

Gee, this is good news for someone with in daughter in College and a son about to enter.... Oh well....

[Alberta's Child]

I'd say the best thing to do is get your kids into high-tech fields where they can work on a full-time basis for a half-decent salary while going to college at night. If they get their degree in the same field as their full-time job, they can actually make a case that it is "training" or "maintenance of job skills" and write off the college costs on their taxes.

Worked well for me.

[MasonGal]

Well - this "loving" parent has homeschooled her 3 sons for ten years now. As I said in my other message - our oldest son is now a college freshman. We are still continuing to homeschool our other 2 sons. My son who is in college is known on campus as being one of THE most conservative students there!

[max61]

Of course college costs will soar. The federal government subsidizes higher education with taxpayer dollars does it not?.

If people were really interested in lowering the cost of education they would get rid of federal government subsidies.

---max

[yoe]

Better yet, when are parents going to become concerned enough to demand a real education for their children? They can start by eradicating tenure for un-worthy professors and teachers. The lost money these universities are screaming about is due largely to foreign students and tenured teachers you can't fire and who aren't worth the money they are paid. The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities should look into privatizing health care and not asking the taxpayer to shoulder that burden as well as their own health care!

Ah yes, there is the case for lazy children.

[SP67]

Colleges have a monopoly on higher education, both private and public. When someone wakes up and figures out how to provide the same quality of education through the internet with the same recognition and credibility, then these schools will get their act together.

Are there any other products that you know of whose price consistently grows faster than the inflation rate other than a college education?

[tamu]

rant

exactly max. lets all keep repeating this to all who complain about such inflation.
take a look at any major university (US) in the fall thru spring. you'll see thousands
of kids paying frisbee or grab a$$ or both for most of the day. not to say there aren't
serious student there (usually the college of science), but the average student has a care
free lifestyle given to them by forcing everyone else (retirees, folks barely making
it on their own etc.).

the greatest thing that could happen to these places would be if the student welfare
were removed. students would become very serious, standards would go up and the product would
be a literate, productive person. /rant

[CatoRenasci]

Except in a very few states [California (University of California system, but NOT Cal State Universities), Indiana (UI), Michigan (UofMAnnArbor), North Carolina (UNC Chapel Hill), Texas (UTxAustin), Virginia (UVa, Wm&Mary), and Wisconsin (UWMadison) all known as "public ivies"], the elite who run our society do not send their children to subsidized state universities. The children of the elite go to the big name private Ivies [Harvard, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, UofPennsylvania, Colgate], the private 2nd tier universities in the top 50, and the very exclusive small liberal arts colleges [mostly the ones listed in the USNews to 50 national liberal arts colleges].

With the exception of the university systems of California, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin, the state colleges and universities are intended to provide middle managers and teachers and their ilk, not the future members of the elite. Go into any major investment bank or bank or law firm in New York, you will find less than 20% of the professionals come from public college or university backgrounds (other than the "public ivies").

So, the subsidy in the state colleges and universities is not for the elite, in most cases.

[Brookhaven]

Colleges are trying to fight the law of supply and demand.

Colleges overbuilt for baby boomers. There are now not enough students to fill all of the colleges. Colleges are trying to maintain their income by charging more per student. Costs at traditional colleges will continue to rise, because not only are there fewer potential students, but there will be fewer "traditonal" students in the future.

There are all kinds of ways to deliver a college education besides sitting in a classroom (and newer ones comming). There is a guy named John Bear that sells a book documenting a lot of these. There are a slew of accreditated colleges including Auburn, Georgia Tech, Nebraska, Alabama, and Ohio University that offer accredited degree programs where you almost never even have to step on campus.

I took several distance education courses through Troy State University, Montgomery. You can significantly reduce the cost of a college degree by taking advantage of the distance / alternative education courses offered by schools throughout the country. If you are going to send kids through college, the cost savings makes it worth investigating these programs.

Eventually the law of supply and demand will catch up with traditional institutions, but for the near future they will try to fight it by raising the tuition for each student, and maintianing that the "traditional college experience" is worth the addtional $20,000 or so you might pay over using the newer non-tradional delivery methods of a college education.

[VOA]

bump

[CatoRenasci]

I think you're right about the cost increases being related to supply and demand, but I think you have drawn the wrong conclusions. The higher education market is very much segmented, in some segments demand has definitely fallen, such as the state colleges that expanded to meet the demand of the boomers and the small colleges that did not secure a unique character or quality niche during the boomers period, although the "boomlet" may increase even that demand in the next 5-10 years. On the other hand, the top tier segments, where the most expensive and selective schools live, face an ever-increasing demand that vastly outstrips the supply. There are more than a dozen applicants for each place at some of the most elite schools. They don't have to worry significantly about declining demand, they still pick and choose among the best applicants.

Market forces are still at work, you just need to define the market in which each college is selling accurately.