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Regardless of whether or not you personally agree, I am thinking about the Montreal protests that are in the news here in Canada. The students are protesting over tuition fee increases, and getting pretty serious -- engaged in actions like trashing the education minister's office, and walking out of classes etc.
I don't know how the media coverage portrays it in the US, or if it is on the news much etc., but there are a lot of people with the viewpoint that these are spoiled brats raising a racket and causing trouble, but also (just based on perception) small but fair-sized number that do seem to agree with the students' protests and feel solidarity with their ideals. Most of the rest of Canada outside Quebec also does not seem that pleased/supportive, based on media sentiment. However, there is a small minority that still thinks college should be more affordable, even if not free.
In the world forum, I started a post about attitudes about having free post-secondary education in many countries (obviously in most developed countries, elementary school and high school are free or even required) and how many people believe it should extend to college. It was mentioned that there was free state university education in California, until the Reagan years.
Now, regardless of what you personally believe, do you see in the United States any movement like this? Is it completely a non-issue in the United States for the most part, or do you feel in your state/area etc. there are some people who believe that this is an important/political issue?
College costs have skyrocketed in the past ten or fifteen years in the United States. I think most people would agree that they should be lower, but how low and how they should be lowered would be pretty contentious issues.
The problem is that the school costs have risen so dramatically without any obvious uptick in the quality of the product being offered. IE, professor pay levels are still about where they were a decade ago; there aren't significantly more classes being offered (rather, class sizes are simply increasing); and aside from a few notable exceptions (the University of Connecticut investing something like 4 billion in state funds in completely rebuilding their campus), the infrastructure at a lot of these colleges continues to rot.
It's a serious issue, and these 50/70/100% cost increases are inexcusable. Adding to the problem is the bloat in degree requirements. IE, every job under the sun now seems to require a degree. It's become a litmus test in order to advance farther, regardless of what the profession in question is. The result is a dumbing down of the requirements for graduation (nobody writes term papers anymore; tests are easier; entrance exams are easier) -- because, obviously, people are just as stupid as they've always been -- and, worse, the degradation of the value of all degrees, as the more people possess a diploma, the less it's worth.
So, yeah, it's a major issue. I expect that, once the economy is back in order (hah!), it'll be something that gets tackled in congress.
Among students, yes, it is a big issue. In my second language classes we obviously did a lot of talking and reading of things we wrote in and out of class and sharing about our lives and ideas, etc. At some point we'd get to a chapter about politics or education or whatever and guess what always came up? Free education. Whether jokingly or seriously, it didn't matter. And even outside of those classes, everyone I talk to complains about the debt they are forced to incur. I, personally, was working full-time and had a 4.0 and still couldn't afford to take more than a class at a time. At that rate it's almost like, what's the point?
Here in Washington state the cost (adjusted for inflation) of educating a student has stayed constant throughout the decades. The cost of educating students is not going up in this state, at least. Colleges here have been doing a GREAT job at keeping costs down and trimming fat. But students now pick up 70% of the cost through tuition and fees. A decade ago 70% was what the state/taxpayers provided in funding.
Something is a little off there, don't you think? Especially considering that EVERYONE benefits from things such as high educational attainment levels. Sorry you have to pay taxes, but that's how you buy civilization.
But no, there is no big, populist affordable education movement outside of college campuses. There might be once the student loan bubble pops...
As you have posted this same thread in two different forums, I will give the same response in both of them:
The California state university system was free until the Reagan governorship. One of the top lines in Reagan's personal agenda was to abolish free higher education in California, and a $600 fee was imposed starting in 1971.
In Louisiana, as part of Huey Long's promise, university students in the 1950s paid only a $35 per semester fee to enroll at state colleges and universities.
There might be once the student loan bubble pops...
Which will happen. You can't have an entire generation of college graduates working at, say, Starbucks while trying to pay off 100k in debts. That's the ingredients for a revolution, not a government movement. You're talking about the termination of the American dream.
The problem is that the school costs have risen so dramatically without any obvious uptick in the quality of the product being offered. IE, professor pay levels are still about where they were a decade ago; there aren't significantly more classes being offered (rather, class sizes are simply increasing); and aside from a few notable exceptions (the University of Connecticut investing something like 4 billion in state funds in completely rebuilding their campus), the infrastructure at a lot of these colleges continues to rot.
100% agree. States have raised taxes dramatically in the past 15 years, but state tuition rates continue to escalate out of control. Where is all this tax money going?
Last edited by toobusytoday; 06-10-2012 at 09:28 AM..
Which will happen. You can't have an entire generation of college graduates working at, say, Starbucks while trying to pay off 100k in debts. That's the ingredients for a revolution, not a government movement. You're talking about the termination of the American dream.
Average student loan debt from a top 100 school is around 15k. It's about 20 from a public/private.
The problem with student loan debt are the average students who are going to for-profits and schools they never graduate from.
The problem is that the school costs have risen so dramatically without any obvious uptick in the quality of the product being offered. IE, professor pay levels are still about where they were a decade ago; there aren't significantly more classes being offered (rather, class sizes are simply increasing); and aside from a few notable exceptions (the University of Connecticut investing something like 4 billion in state funds in completely rebuilding their campus), the infrastructure at a lot of these colleges continues to rot.
quote]
100% agree. States have raised taxes dramatically in the past 15 years, but state tuition rates continue to escalate out of control. Where is all this tax money going?
Many states have been slashing budgets of Universities for many years now which is why public tuition has been going up.
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