If Colleges Didn't Waste Your Tuition, We Wouldn't Need New Student Loan Reform - Guardian

[WillyT]

If colleges didn't waste your tuition, we wouldn't need new student loan reform
Saddling students with unsustainable debts is only a symptom of the deeper erosion within higher education.
Michelle Chen - theguardian.com
Wednesday 11 June 2014 05.30 EDT

<snip>

The student debt crisis – currently the subject of executive orders, pending Senate legislation, protests and much boomer hand-wringing – is more accurately an education cost crisis. Tuitions have more than doubled since the early 1980s, but not because the quality of a college education has improved that much. Rather, it's because because policymakers and administrators have come to treat higher education as a commercial marketplace, rather than a public trust – and stop-gap student loan reforms like those "unveiled" by President Obama this week fail to confront this ethical dilemma underlying the debt pile.

According to University of California-Berkeley's Debt & Society project, rising higher education spending is in large part driven by factors that have little to do with the quality of instruction or academic resources: schools are pouring gobs of capital into material amenities like student lounges and sports arenas, and this spending in turn raises the cost of the debts schools incur to finance these projects. Much of this investment plays into the business of college – marketing the campus to students who foot the bill and bring in more revenue.

While private institutions become increasingly financialized, public institutions are also shifting toward a service-industry model. For the nearly three-quarters of US students enrolled in a public university or community college system, tuition more than doubled between 1990 and 2010, while state funding fell by about 25% on average, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Students and their families have made up the difference, borrowing on the hopes that their degree will pay off one day. Those hopes are now crumbling as young adults face a volatile labor market and long-term economic stagnation. After years of being reassured that a college diploma was their key to a stable future, young people find themselves in the hole before they even collect their first paycheck.

Another driver of debt is the eroding value of Pell grants, which are targeted to low-income families. The maximum grant currently covers less than one third of the total tuition, room and board costs at a typical public four-year university.

The collapse of public support for higher education has...

<snip>

More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/11/college-tuition-waste-student-loan-reform

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[Demo_Chris]

2. business is business. nt

[mythology]

4. The article makes a lot of assertions but doesn't actually prove any of them

And it neglects to mention a significant expense that didn't exist in nearly the same fashion 10 years ago in technology costs. Not just in terms of putting in ethernet/wifi access, but providing the necessary software to students and faculty. I worked in the IT department for a major university and we spent a significant chunk of change just on software licenses, before paying our own staff to support it. For internet access, it's gone from equipping a couple of computer labs with ethernet, to installing ethernet ports in every dorm, to making wifi accessible everywhere for laptops to making wifi accessible for smart phones and for video game systems. Which has been a consistent cost of upgrading infrastructure because students aren't going to go where those things aren't available.

Additionally as research has become increasingly complex with the growth of new technology, it becomes more expensive. When a psychology study looks to use an fmri machine, that's not cost free. Yes some of that can come from a professor's funding, but some of that comes from the university.

Yes, colleges spend way too much on sports and have grown an enormous number of administrators who don't actually seem to do a lot. But there is also a lot of new expenses that just weren't present before.

The article is also using fear mongering when it talks about how students are grappling with the question of whether going to college is a worthwhile investment. Statistically speaking, it's a no brainer. People who have 4 year degrees on average make nearly twice as much and have about half the unemployment rate of people with just a high school diploma. Yes there are exceptions on both sides, but on average, getting a college degree is a great investment economically speaking.

The problem with simply waving a wand and decreasing student loan debt is that it doesn't resolve the underlying problem. We need to invest more as a country in education across the board, from pre-school through the university level. But because we have to account for the party who thinks any funding is just a commie socialist muslim plot to destroy America by telling us about climate change and such, that's going to be difficult. Neil deGrasse Tyson can say that the great thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not, but that doesn't help us resolve the fact that we have a party in this country that thinks that an educated populace is a bad thing.

That said, yes we do need to do something about student loan debt (I still have around $40,000 or so myself), but it's only useful after we fix the funding of schools. Otherwise you wind up giving colleges more incentive to just pile on the costs rather than addressing the skyrocketing costs. Don't give us a band-aid, fix the underlying issue.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

5. As a Cal alum, I'd like to respond

According to University of California-Berkeley's Debt & Society project, rising higher education spending is in large part driven by factors that have little to do with the quality of instruction or academic resources: schools are pouring gobs of capital into material amenities like student lounges and sports arenas, and this spending in turn raises the cost of the debts schools incur to finance these projects. Much of this investment plays into the business of college – marketing the campus to students who foot the bill and bring in more revenue.

This conclusion is hilarious coming from a school that spent half a billion dollars doing a renovation of a football stadium built on the Hayward fault.

[Kurska]

6. Sadly, without the bells and whistles those universities wouldn't be able to attract students

Especially top talent.

I went to a fairly small regional university in the south. They always had amazing instruction, but you know how it began to make a name for itself and really attract top talent? They had to spend loads of money buildings things like student unions, student health centers (essentially giant gyms), a new resort style dorm and eating areas.

I would see it all the time. When they were taking prospective students on tours they weren't showing them the quality professors, they were showing them all the neat new expensive stuff we built.

[davidpdx]

7. Well even just providing dorms is expensive

The school I went to has grown quite a bit in the last 17 years since I graduated. It is an urban university that is very limited by the amount of land available to build on around it. They were able to acquire a few new blocks and build some additional dorms since I left. Had the dorms I lived in not existed when I went there, I would not have been able to go to school.

I believe they have added some of the things you mentioned, but I haven't visited there in several years. I'll be in town this summer and will stop by to have a look around.

[davidpdx]

8. It is a combination of problems

Generally everything becomes more expensive over time including salaries and expenses. Professors have to be given a competitive salary to attract them and get them to stay.

The profs at my alma mater threatened to go on strike this spring due to a contract dispute and they feel like what was being offered was a bad deal (I don't remember the details). I happen to have one of my profs on Facebook and that's how I found out.

Financial aid has been cut and that is largely a product of those being traded for more tax cuts. When I was in school I had max Pell Grants and work study to help cover tuition.

The salaries and number of administrators is getting out of hand. This was one of the issues brought up by the profs at my university when they were talking about striking (they reached a deal thankfully).

Yes, student loans need to be reformed. A college education is important though.