Parents Snared in $100 Billion College Debt Trap Risk Retirement

[stockholmer]

4. by increasing the amount of available credit (subsidised loans) & outright grants, an artificial

price bubble (driven, I agree, by an artificially high demand) ensues. You do remember the housing bubble, no? This is especially borne out in the less expensive end (ie public) of the higher education market, where the % of increase in tuition has rapidly out-paced the high-end 'elite' schools' tuitions.


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http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/are_we_getting_our_moneys_wort.html

Are We Getting Our Money's Worth in Higher Education? (March 22, 2011)


President Obama has stressed http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/ that a college education is critical to the future of America and our ability to compete in the world marketplace. To achieve that aim, our government is spending http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget11/summary/edlite-section3d.html 60% more in 2011 than 2008 and providing 123% more in tax breaks for post secondary education (i.e., college). The Government has taken over all federally backed student loans, pushing almost all private lenders out http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574405154157021052.html of the 100 billion a year market.


But are we getting our money's worth?


One of the hallmarks of bad government is spending that is out of proportion to what is actually bought. Think 500 dollar hammers and 1200 dollar toilets seats. Ensuring that taxpayers get what they pay for at a fair price is doubly important in this age of a 14 trillion dollar national debt. http://www.usdebtclock.org/ When the conversation turns to such ephemeral ideas as a good education, measuring value for money is rarely talked about. Perhaps we had better start considering some of the salient statistics;


•The median debt for a student graduating with a 4 year degree is $19,999 and going up.
•56% of Students that start a 4 year program don't get a degree within 6 years.
•45% of students show no improvement in critical thinking, writing, or reasoning skills after the first 2 years of college.
•College tuition costs have grown 3 times the rate of general inflation, even outstripping medical costs.

These statistics underscore the unintended consequences of blindly funneling monies into the US college education marketplace. Much like the community re-investment act http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/18/fannie-freddie-regulation-oped-cx_yb_0718brook.html coupled with loose monetary policy fed the housing bubble, government monies are feeding the forces driving higher education cost up. This produces a vicious cycle where government drives costs up requiring more taxpayer money to help get students through school. Currently dividing the amount of aid available by the estimated total student enrollment results in more than nine thousand dollars of aid per student for 2010.............

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