At some point we have to talk about personal responsibility. The constant blame gaming and excuse making will inevitably lead to......."A society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools". - Seneca
I remember when I was graduating high school they'd tell us the math, the difference between a high school degree vs a college degree was $1million in income over a lifetime. Obviously there is huge variation in that depending on what degree.
And most students don't even declare a degree till at least after the freshman year if not their sophomore year. So how do you do a ROI when you don't even know what degree you are seeking? And what if you declared Computer Science going into school, but get weeded out and switch to match teacher after your freshman year (which was the case for 2/3rds of my freshman class in college at the time).
What I've always found interesting is the cost of tuition including loans has always been tied to you and your family's ability to pay. You submit to the school what your family's household assets and income is and they build you a package that includes loans. I was accepted at every school I applied to, but in the end, the difference between a state education vs private school vs what it was going to cost me just didn't justify taking those thousands in loans. Waited to graduate school for the private education where the cost per 3 credit hour course was more than a full semester of undergrad state school.
Ideally a public education should be affordable without taking massive loans. But it also means providing opportunities for in state tuition over the out of state/country student that is paying far more for that same opportunity. How do we get back there is the challenge. The demand in many fields is still out there. The question is how to fill those jobs going forward. And providing the students the education necessary to get there.
And BTW, no reason for the federal government to back loans to private schools. These schools have large endowments, back your own loans. That then would put the responsibility back on the school.
Ohio has required a 3% limit for tuition hikes for getting state support for colleges for over a decade. Still, a credit hour at the local branch college is almost what 3 cost in the early 90s.
College at all costs has its consequences. Eventually the chickens come home to roost! Fighting the urge for more “free” things is hard for politicians not to sell, and under skilled workers not to take. At least 50% of the people in college would be better off learning a skilled trade. Maybe even a higher percentage honestly!
Great article, David. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If there is student loan "forgiveness," it should be covered by the offending institutions that took the money and did not deliver anything of comparable value in return. That's right, the colleges and universities, not the taxpayer.
I believe the answer lies in two major reforms: 1. Return of the loans to the private sector and removal of BK protections for Lender, and 2.) overhaul of “non-profit” endowment systems.
The public should not shoulder the forever risk of loans to borrowers who are not creditworthy while institutions have free reign to charge whatever they want and grow their absurdly large endowments on the backs of “not for profit” accounting shenanigans. (Non-education based non-profits also need overhaul.)
Tackle those two and we realign incentives of risk/reward in a way that is sustainable.
Thanks for connecting the dots as few others could David. Asking teenagers to decide a course for their life at the time when they are least equipped to do so is truly insane, if not outright cruel. That said, 18-20 were the best years of my life, but I had to drop out to work in a packing plant (7500 hogs a day, 10 hours a day, six days a week) to get some maturity and sensibility ingrained so as to go back and finish. In my defense, a movie named "Animal House" hit the theaters two days after my arrival on campus, and the flick informed my matriculation those two years...."drunk, fat and stupid...." oh but WHAT A BLAST
At some point we have to talk about personal responsibility. The constant blame gaming and excuse making will inevitably lead to......."A society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools". - Seneca
Our parents used to talk to us about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, now we talk to our kids about the dangers of debt and AI.
I remember when I was graduating high school they'd tell us the math, the difference between a high school degree vs a college degree was $1million in income over a lifetime. Obviously there is huge variation in that depending on what degree.
And most students don't even declare a degree till at least after the freshman year if not their sophomore year. So how do you do a ROI when you don't even know what degree you are seeking? And what if you declared Computer Science going into school, but get weeded out and switch to match teacher after your freshman year (which was the case for 2/3rds of my freshman class in college at the time).
What I've always found interesting is the cost of tuition including loans has always been tied to you and your family's ability to pay. You submit to the school what your family's household assets and income is and they build you a package that includes loans. I was accepted at every school I applied to, but in the end, the difference between a state education vs private school vs what it was going to cost me just didn't justify taking those thousands in loans. Waited to graduate school for the private education where the cost per 3 credit hour course was more than a full semester of undergrad state school.
Ideally a public education should be affordable without taking massive loans. But it also means providing opportunities for in state tuition over the out of state/country student that is paying far more for that same opportunity. How do we get back there is the challenge. The demand in many fields is still out there. The question is how to fill those jobs going forward. And providing the students the education necessary to get there.
And BTW, no reason for the federal government to back loans to private schools. These schools have large endowments, back your own loans. That then would put the responsibility back on the school.
Ohio has required a 3% limit for tuition hikes for getting state support for colleges for over a decade. Still, a credit hour at the local branch college is almost what 3 cost in the early 90s.
College at all costs has its consequences. Eventually the chickens come home to roost! Fighting the urge for more “free” things is hard for politicians not to sell, and under skilled workers not to take. At least 50% of the people in college would be better off learning a skilled trade. Maybe even a higher percentage honestly!
Great article, David. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If there is student loan "forgiveness," it should be covered by the offending institutions that took the money and did not deliver anything of comparable value in return. That's right, the colleges and universities, not the taxpayer.
I believe the answer lies in two major reforms: 1. Return of the loans to the private sector and removal of BK protections for Lender, and 2.) overhaul of “non-profit” endowment systems.
The public should not shoulder the forever risk of loans to borrowers who are not creditworthy while institutions have free reign to charge whatever they want and grow their absurdly large endowments on the backs of “not for profit” accounting shenanigans. (Non-education based non-profits also need overhaul.)
Tackle those two and we realign incentives of risk/reward in a way that is sustainable.
Thanks for connecting the dots as few others could David. Asking teenagers to decide a course for their life at the time when they are least equipped to do so is truly insane, if not outright cruel. That said, 18-20 were the best years of my life, but I had to drop out to work in a packing plant (7500 hogs a day, 10 hours a day, six days a week) to get some maturity and sensibility ingrained so as to go back and finish. In my defense, a movie named "Animal House" hit the theaters two days after my arrival on campus, and the flick informed my matriculation those two years...."drunk, fat and stupid...." oh but WHAT A BLAST
Who would turn down free money, until you had to pay it back. Yikes! And the rich get richer.