Quote:
Originally Posted by detshen
Tuition costs for the students and their families have risen exponentially. At public colleges and universities, the story is mostly that states have cut higher education funding, and schools are making up for it by increasing tuition for students. Private colleges have seen loss of donors. The burden has shifted so dramatically to the students that many lower, and middle class families cannot afford college without loans. Tuition and fees at a public school in my state costs 40K-50K, double that with room and board. The cost of a college degree has increased 12 fold in the past 30 years.
We can't keep raising the bar on our young people if we want to have a thriving economy. Corporations have sent most of working class jobs overseas, so we demanded young people go to college, and get educated. Now that many college graduates can't find jobs people have decided to raise the bar again, and deride them for graduating with any major that isn't STEM. Every student does not have the aptitude for STEM, and if that's the only major choice we will simply end up with a glut of STEM graduates who still can't find work.
We cannot make a college degree the new high school diploma if we are not willing to subsidize it. We are destroying our own economy. We have a generation saddled with loans. Money we need them to spend supporting the economy by buying houses, cars, goods, services, etc. we will be sent to support the ever increasing loan balance since many have high interest rates that can never be refinanced.
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Actually, it may be even worse than that. There is a super glut of STEM majors and degreed people with wages nearly stagnated and future prospects dim.
Going into STEM is touted as an article of faith in this country, but when you can get STEM workers abroad for 1/20th the cost of a US worker, it isn't the path to riches that's been promised.
The Myth of the Science and Engineering Shortage - Michael S. Teitelbaum - The Atlantic
The cost of a college education is a complete scam. The basis of scarcity of knowledge was the basis for cost. Now that knowledge is essentially free, colleges extort the public through monopoly power on accreditation. Accreditation should be by test, and handled like a license. How you gained the knowledge should not be held captive under an arcane structure that charges a lifetime of salary for something that can be obtained for nearly free.
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