Making college affordable

Boston Globe ^ | February 10, 2005 | Jeff Jacoby

[billorites]

"WE MUST open the doors of college to all Americans," declared the president in his State of the Union Message. "To do that, I propose . . . the largest increase in Pell Grant scholarships in 20 years."

Do you remember hearing George W. Bush say that last week?

Actually, you don't. Those words are from President Clinton's State of the Union address in 1997. But if you tuned in to Bush's speech on Feb. 2, you heard him say something quite similar: "We will make it easier for Americans to afford a college education by increasing the size of Pell Grants." The new budget he unveiled this week would gradually raise the maximum annual grant to $4,550, an increase of $500.

Beginning with the GI Bill in 1944, federal tuition aid has metastasized into a dizzying array of subsidies

edit.....

The cat has been out of the bag for a long time. In a 1987 New York Times column titled "Our greedy colleges," Ronald Reagan's education secretary, William Bennett, rebuked colleges and universities for repeatedly jacking up tuition far beyond any reasonable adjustment for inflation. "Increases in financial aid in recent years have enabled colleges and universities blithely to raise their tuitions," Bennett charged, "confident that federal loan subsidies would help cushion the increase."

Isn't it time to stop pouring fuel on this fire? Instead of renewing the Higher Education Act, Congress should phase it out, thereby forcing colleges and universities to compete on price. That would leave financial aid to the private sector, which can target it far more effectively -- and where it should have been left all along.

[billorites]

Every public dollar spent on education is money down a rat hole.

[Mark was here]

Nothing will ever cost less than the amount it is subsidized for.

[libs_kma]

Read later bump

[heylady]

One of my sons went to Embry Riddle. They don't give any university scholarships and therefor can keep tuition costs low. Back then it was about $13,000 a year. My daughter , on the other hand, attended American University where they hand out rather large university scholarships. Her tuition was $25,000 a year. These universities rob from the "rich" so they can give tuition breaks to the "poor".

[Route66]

If there was only a way to get higher education out of the hands of the liberals. The quality would go up while the cost would go down. Right now, it's subsidized welfare for the liberal elite as well as the base for most of their social engineering. Essentially, we've paid them (and continue to pay them) to do their best to ruin the young adults we send to them and then to extend their reach to each successive generation of kids through the teachers they indoctrinate and send out to primary and secondary schools.

Even if you are fortunate enough to live where there is still a fairly conservative school system, most of the teachers and administrators who are being hired are products of liberal institutions and are bringing this trash along with them. When necessary, they have been taught how to be discrete and even secretive as they concentrate their teaching efforts on the occasionally unpopular socialization that they have been told is the most important thing they must teach in every class no matter the subject. We really blew it when we let then take over most of the colleges and universities in this country and we have paid a heavy price.

[DustyMoment]

Well, the universities have to pay for their NFL farm clubs SOMEHOW!!!

[LanPB01]

Bookmark

[ladyrustic]

"These universities rob from the "rich" so they can give tuition breaks to the "poor"."

Rob the rich? Rob? And you have poor in quotes, which indicates you don't really believe that they are poor. Like they are somehow faking their poverty or something. You've obviously never filled out financial aid paperwork if you believe the poor can fake their poverty. Clearly from your post you don't think poor kids should have the option of higher education. Which is sad.

Here's how way colleges work: The entire tuition and financial aid system is designed to extract the maximum amount of money possible from any given family.

Thus wealthy families pay full tuition, moderately wealthy families pay somewhat less, and dirt poor families pay a minimum. The ONLY families for which the whole thing is not financially painful are scholarship students and the quite wealthy.

[RaceBannon]

I think they should make college affordable by granting loans whenever asked, and have the loans deducted from your pay each week, and the government can even charge interest.

It would be college for who wants it, guaranteed payment to the government through payroll deductions.

Your employer already handles the paperwork fo ryour taxes and social security, all it would be is one more paper to fill out if you have a loan, and since you dont NEED to go to college, the new agency doesnt have to be large at all.

AND, you still end up paying for it.

[heylady]

Believe as you wish about me but you are so far off base it is absolutely funny. You are right about one thing. I don't think that rich people should have to subsidize college tuition for the "poor". If you can't afford an Ivy League education then go to a state junior college or a state university. I don't like the idea of the money being handed out with no expectation of paying it back. If Universities wanted to give loans that the students would eventually have to pay back it would be a better idea. If you have to work for something you appreciate the final outcome more. I never liked the idea of free handouts. But that's my opinion.

[raybbr]

...you heard him say something quite similar: "We will make it easier for Americans to afford a college education by increasing the size of Pell Grants." The new budget he unveiled this week would gradually raise the maximum annual grant to $4,550, an increase of $500.

Which means, of course, that the colleges will now all raise the tuition to compensate. Colleges are way overpriced. It's basically a scam at this point, IMO.

[sgtbono2002]

My belief is that college is for people who have used their 12 years in High School to acquire good grades and prove their worthiness for higher education. Not every kid deserves to go to college. When they go they should learn subjects that help them to make a good living in the world.I am not sure I consider ethnic studies or basket weaving 101 or being exposed to liberal professors a worthy endeavor for college studies, But then I never went, I had to go to work right out of High school. Life has been good.

[Hardastarboard]

Well, the universities have to pay for their NFL farm clubs SOMEHOW!!!

NCAA means No Colleges are Amateurs Anymore

[heylady]

"AND, you still end up paying for it"

I like the way you think.

[cinives]

I'm with you - well said.

There was a whiny essay in Newsweek this week, written by a woman who is trying to pay back over $100k in student loans for her BA and MA degrees. I think she said her current job was in advertising or marketing or something similar, and she is so poor because of her student loans.

Well - if you cannot afford to pay it back, and the job at the end of all this payout doesn't pay enough to cover the loans, then don't do it.

There are quite a few colleges out there where your annual tuition bill is under $5k. Why do these people think they are entitled to a cadillac education on beer money ?

We have a gimme society.

[John O]

Thus wealthy families pay full tuition, moderately wealthy families pay somewhat less, and dirt poor families pay a minimum. The ONLY families for which the whole thing is not financially painful are scholarship students and the quite wealthy.

Wrong. The weathly families pay full tuition and through the taxes wrested from them pay the balance for the poorer families. (Can you say rob from the rich to give to the poor? I knew you could.) Then, in most cases, the education that they do get is degraded by having unprepared students in the same classes.

Even if they manage to avoid the riff-raff they still have to pay for said riff-raff to go somewhere. WHY?

(Note that I am far from rich and am worried how I am going to pay for my children's higher education as it is)

[Lou L]

Well - if you cannot afford to pay it back, and the job at the end of all this payout doesn't pay enough to cover the loans, then don't do it.

BAM! You hit the mark! A college education should be weighed like any other investment...what's the return, or ROI going to be? If the ROI doesn't justify the costs of going, you're better off investing that money elsewhere.

To paraphrase your last remark, too many people think they're entitled to a Cadillac salary on a beer-money degree; e.g., "I have a BA and MA in French Literature, but all I can get is this crummy part-time teaching job at the high-school!"

[rwfromkansas]

Lady,

IN COLLEGE TUITION, THE PEOLE WHO GET SCREWED ARE THOSE IN BETWEEN, THE MIDDLE CLASS.

Thanks to the government system, the poor get money tossed at them, the rich don't since they can afford it just fine.

BUT, for those in THE MIDDLE........MOST AMERICANS....particularly those making 50 grand or a bit more...it is one royal screw job.

You get virtually nothing, yet you CAN'T REALLY AFFORD HOW MUCH THE GOVT. SAYS YOU NEED TO PAY SINCE YOU AREN'T "POOR" ENOUGH TO GET EVERYTHING THROWN AT YOU.

Financial aid is a scam that rips off the vast majority of people to favor the very poor and the very rich.

Financial aid is a disgrace.

[rwfromkansas]

The average student loan debt is near 20 grand. Students have to take out plenty of loans since the government throws money at the poor and throws scraps at the middle to upper middle class.

[Xenalyte]

Were it not for the National Merit Scholarship, I might have been forced to go to a public university. Hell, I might even have gotten a real college education, instead of the half-assed HBU one the Foundation paid for.

My hand to God, when I got to the University of Houston for my graduate work, it took me almost a year to catch up to the students who'd attended public colleges. The breadth of what they'd been exposed to put HBU's extremely narrow curriculum to shame.

Before I got to UH, I had never heard of Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, or the like . . . and that was a HUGE handicap.

Not that Derrida, Foucault, Irigaray, and their ilk have anything to offer the scholarly discourse, mind you. They were just the fashion when I entered grad school.