Recovery threatened by runaway student loan debt

[SomeGuyInEagan]

44. Yes, deceived. In some cases, at least.

See post #36, above.

There is a growing number of for-profit higher education institutions whose business practices not only embrace deception, but also fraud (falsifying sigs on finaid forms). The students from those schools have a much higher student loan default rate than the non-profits. People do sue, but the courts are slow. This is why the U.S. Senate held hearings on the matter in fall 2010 (what came out of that, despite the hopes of students, parents and those in non-profit higher ed were mandates which further assist the for-profits by handcuffing the non-profits as the lobbyests got a toe hold). Watch the Frontline show cited in #36, above. It is a really sleazy (but profitable) business model.

Also, cost for the public vary state-to-state as state support varies. In constant dollars, my students pay their full tuition pay a far greater percentage of the true cost of their education today than I did in the early '80s as a student without grants/scholarship. Generally speaking, people of my generation who paid full tuition at a state public school paid about 30-40% of the cost through tuition (those a bit older were closer to 30%). Today, students in the same situation generally have to cover 60-70% of the cost. That is because states have been pulling funding from the schools over the past 40 years.

This is for two- and four-year degrees.

The largest public school in my state - the University of Minnesota - gets less than 20% of its total budget from the state. The rest is from tuition, research and fundraising (they are lucky as not many community and technical colleges can count on that), which varies by college. And each year they get cut more.