College today has way more responsibilities. It has to fix rape culture, dismantle patriarchy, fix diversity, organize protests... All that costs money. In 1990ties 20% of students got raped, nobody wants to go back to that dark times!
High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
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Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#12Western Europeans seem to have figured out how to get a good, affordable college education without this sort of thing. Some Europeans I talked to said the government even gives them a per diem for spending money or what have you while they go to college. They don't seem to have onerous debt.
Just like high medical costs, or school shootings (nineteen children were just killed by a gunman at a school in the US, for the Europeans unaware) and so forth, this seems to be a mostly US specific problem.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are municipal resource colleges. They're called community colleges. They are extremely affordable. Very few people want to go there.
few people want to go there because the bit of paper you get at the end is the value and those a worth less than the bits of paper you get from other universities.
If you reason from the premise that it's only the diploma that matters, I'm not sure it makes sense to talk about "transitioning" college from one model to another in the first place. We can't just decide by administrative fiat to transfer a bit of prestige from Harvard to the local 2-year school, even if we all agree it'd be better that way.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#14Michigan cut basically all remaining funding for higher education while I was in college. I saw double-digit percent increases every year. A few years ago I went back to look, assuming sky-high tuition rates, but they ended up only being a little bit higher than when I went.
So why did tuition get high? The state stopped subsidizing it directly.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#15Michigan cut basically all remaining funding for higher education while I was in college. I saw double-digit percent increases every year. A few years ago I went back to look, assuming sky-high tuition rates, but they ended up only being a little bit higher than when I went. So why did tuition get high? The state stopped subsidizing it directly.
Given that degree holders go on to make wages much higher than those without, is it really fair that those without subsidize the education expenses of people who will go on to out earn them? Especially given how vanishingly little of it goes to actual education and instead administration and sporting programs.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#16I mean, yeah. But also, the expectations placed on colleges have grown exponentially. Retention staff, student life staff, counseling staff, new innovative (read: Expensive) programs, the 'experience'. These all cost money.
My experience of expectations of college in the 90's - can I drink? Do the faculty let me miss if I need to?
My experience of expectations of college now - is my child safe? Can s/he access appropriate supports to ensure his/her success? What can s/he do on campus that ensures his/her safety and security and is free? Who can s/he talk to 24 hours a day for any reason? What connections to industry do you have for him/her? Do you have co-curricular and curricular experiences ensuring that s/he learns about life skills that s/he doesn't have? Is there a gym? Are there activities available 24/7 based on his/her schedule? Is the technology in the classroom accessible for my student? Are the buildings new?
Edit: My source is my decades of working in higher education. Like it or not, the expectations placed on colleges/universities are much, much higher today. All of that costs money. Every single part of it.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#17College today has way more responsibilities. It has to fix rape culture, dismantle patriarchy, fix diversity, organize protests... All that costs money. In 1990ties 20% of students got raped, nobody wants to go back to that dark times!
Is this meant as parody? I can't tell sometimes.
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are municipal resource colleges. They're called community colleges. They are extremely affordable. Very few people want to go there.
few people want to go there because the bit of paper you get at the end is the value and those a worth less than the bits of paper you get from other universities.
There's also a stigma against this path.
I went to a community college for two years (it was free), and then transferred the University of Florida to finish my degree (a fine public R1 university by any standard), paying exactly $0 for my degree. I know people who followed that same path and went on to top tier law schools, medical schools, bulge bracket investment banking, etc.
Now I can look back and be grateful that I got a great education for free, but I was, and still am slightly embarrassed by saying I went to a community college.
I now live in NYC where I'm pretty sure people can do almost the same thing with the SUNY school system, and come out with an undergrad degree for like $30k (still a lot, but most folks I know paid $100k+ for undergrad degrees that are not substantially differentiated from the path I did).
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#19I think the cultural stance in the U.S. that to progress in life/elevate oneself/stigma against forgoing college is also a large part of it.
I personally think that one policy that could have an outsized effect in solving this problem is establishing a max percentage of income that student loan repayment can be required to be for a maximum number of years (I'm pulling these numbers out of nowhere but just as an example) like 7.5% of gross income for 20 years. If the student hasn't repayed by that time using that percentage of income, the college is on the hook. Alternatively, a combination of the college and the lender (potentially switching away from government lenders).
The problem I'm hoping to solve is the insane growth rates of tuition for a wide variety of degrees that do not justify their cost. Young kids being told that college is the required pathway into a good life often are not given the commensurate instruction that the college degree should be useful in terms of earning more/securing a job. An instruction of "study whatever you find interesting!" sounds good but is IMO very poor advice. It should be modified "Study things you find interesting but remember that college is to build and refine your skills for your career after"
Re: High tuition costs mostly stem from the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 1993
#20So where is the money going? If the price of something is increasing faster than inflation then I expect something in return for the extra money I am paying like a bigger house, faster computer, whatever. I went to college in the 1990's. Are college students getting a better education or experience for all the extra money they are paying? I've seen my university's new classrooms, student center, library, dorms, etc.…
The extra money is going into administration. That includes salaries for non-teacher administrators and the fancy new real estate. Meanwhile they also cleverly decided to hire more part time teachers and fewer full time teachers, so they don't have to offer as much in benefits.