College tuition inflation.

[CultureCitizen]

Tuitions in the USA have been increasing their price above inflation rates steadily over the past three decades. This is an unfortunate situation because it reduces the number of students who are able to obtain a college degree . This can also affect low income families as higher prices are a deterrent.

Though there is a debate on whether more or less college graduates are required , for the purposes of this debate I will assume more are needed, as automation and offshoring have slowly been decreasing the need for unskilled labour.

Do you have any proposal to make college education available to more students?
Does college inflation reflect an increase in the quallity of the education ?

Share your thoughts.

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Can the economy absorb more college-educated workers

 

[ScienceRocks]

The government needs to tell these colleges that are getting these loans that if you're using taxpayer dollars to give yourself a cover to raise tuition it will be taken away and a fine placed on your college.

Time to stop the bull shit. Colleges don't have the right to screw over the taxpayer.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

While other countries invest in their own future, our own students must leave the US to afford higher education.

DUMB.

 

[dblack]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

 

[Mr. H.]

This is a way to get more minorities into higher education. They're the only ones who can afford to attend since they're the only ones who receive enough scholarship.

 

[ScienceRocks]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

We need to put a stop to the college scam of using our money to scam us out of more. We should of course, keep granting money to our children, but we need to demand honesty.

 

[CultureCitizen]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

Probably a good solution, but will that stop the spiraling prices seen in the last 30 years ?

 

[Dekster]

The government needs to tell these colleges that are getting these loans that if you're using taxpayer dollars to give yourself a cover to raise tuition it will be taken away and a fine placed on your college.

Time to stop the bull shit. Colleges don't have the right to screw over the taxpayer.

Along those lines, I read an idea of a forum once that I agreed with--basically make student loans like health insurance. If the university want their students to get federal loans, then the cost of tuition for the students receiving them should be fixed like the cost of reimbursement for an x-ray.

Part of the reason costs are growing so fast is because of non-teaching expenses--administrators, staff, new buildings, etc.

The OP is wrong about one thing though--we will have a gap in unskilled labor once the Boomers all retire. It is why we need immigration.

 

[dblack]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

Probably a good solution, but will that stop the spiraling prices seen in the last 30 years ?

LOL!!! Hell yeah!

 

[CultureCitizen]

The government needs to tell these colleges that are getting these loans that if you're using taxpayer dollars to give yourself a cover to raise tuition it will be taken away and a fine placed on your college.

Time to stop the bull shit. Colleges don't have the right to screw over the taxpayer.

Along those lines, I read an idea of a forum once that I agreed with--basically make student loans like health insurance. If the university want their students to get federal loans, then the cost of tuition for the students receiving them should be fixed like the cost of reimbursement for an x-ray.

Part of the reason costs are growing so fast is because of non-teaching expenses--administrators, staff, new buildings, etc.

The OP is wrong about one thing though--we will have a gap in unskilled labor once the Boomers all retire. It is why we need immigration.

I have my qualms regarding immigration on the long run. I can envision a not so distant future ( say 50 years) in which factories and retail stores will run with minimum staff, land transport will be driverless and some services will be completely automated ( think of the IRobot Roomba ).
Ah , the service sector. Yes, we will still need waiters, teachers, and nurses, and tons of doctors. A silent revolution is happening which mirrors what happened during the start of the industrial revolution. It may take 30 or 50 years, but most certainly it will happen.

 

[Dekster]

The government needs to tell these colleges that are getting these loans that if you're using taxpayer dollars to give yourself a cover to raise tuition it will be taken away and a fine placed on your college.

Time to stop the bull shit. Colleges don't have the right to screw over the taxpayer.

Along those lines, I read an idea of a forum once that I agreed with--basically make student loans like health insurance. If the university want their students to get federal loans, then the cost of tuition for the students receiving them should be fixed like the cost of reimbursement for an x-ray.

Part of the reason costs are growing so fast is because of non-teaching expenses--administrators, staff, new buildings, etc.

The OP is wrong about one thing though--we will have a gap in unskilled labor once the Boomers all retire. It is why we need immigration.

I have my qualms regarding immigration on the long run. I can envision a not so distant future ( say 50 years) in which factories and retail stores will run with minimum staff, land transport will be driverless and some services will be completely automated ( think of the IRobot Roomba ).
Ah , the service sector. Yes, we will still need waiters, teachers, and nurses, and tons of doctors. A silent revolution is happening which mirrors what happened during the start of the industrial revolution. It may take 30 or 50 years, but most certainly it will happen.

I doubt technology moves that fast. It is really a longer term trend that is the issue. People are having fewer children. While I have not seen an official verification, I have heard people reference that it is now below 2 kids per couple on average. First and sometimes second generation Americans tend to lag economically, but later generations start seeing the sort of mobility that makes them not welfare types. I am not worried about robots taking over. The more we deploy, the less advantage will be seen from them as fewer people will have money to spend.

 

[CultureCitizen]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

Probably a good solution, but will that stop the spiraling prices seen in the last 30 years ?

LOL!!! Hell yeah!

Let me play the devil's advocate role for a while.
Let's say college insurance is compulsory and insurers find a way to keep the money on par with the inflation rate. There would be of course a wide array of options. Each insurance would cover a different price segment. So far , so good.
Now , unless the insurance company and the college agree that they can't increase the tuition above the inflation rate, the only thing that will happen is that the premium will increase as the tuition increases. Certainly there is an advantage of spreading the cost of the tuition over 18 years instead of 5 or 10, but my bet is that some extra regulation is needed.

 

[dblack]

We need to force everyone to buy college insurance.

Probably a good solution, but will that stop the spiraling prices seen in the last 30 years ?

LOL!!! Hell yeah!

Let me play the devil's advocate role for a while.
Let's say college insurance is compulsory and insurers find a way to keep the money on par with the inflation rate. There would be of course a wide array of options. Each insurance would cover a different price segment. So far , so good.
Now , unless the insurance company and the college agree that they can't increase the tuition above the inflation rate, the only thing that will happen is that the premium will increase as the tuition increases. Certainly there is an advantage of spreading the cost of the tuition over 18 years instead of 5 or 10, but my bet is that some extra regulation is needed.

Off course!

 

[Eileen]

IMO, there are 2 main purposes of modern day education
1) make a lot of money that is collected through payment for the schooling
2) make a lot of money by producing graduates who will make great strides in STEM areas

These areas of course are the hot areas for employment, because they have the potential to make a lot of cash in this technology race thing we've got going on.

Education is needed for a modern world society...it allows for our efficiency.
In my opinion, if job preservation is a concern then college graduates, especially in STEM areas are dangerous. We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. So, I have to disagree with the purpose of this debate, because more college graduates are hurting our economy because they create the technology that causes job loss.

 

[CultureCitizen]

IMO, there are 2 main purposes of modern day education
1) make a lot of money that is collected through payment for the schooling
2) make a lot of money by producing graduates who will make great strides in STEM areas

These areas of course are the hot areas for employment, because they have the potential to make a lot of cash in this technology race thing we've got going on.

Education is needed for a modern world society...it allows for our efficiency.
In my opinion, if job preservation is a concern then college graduates, especially in STEM areas are dangerous. We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. So, I have to disagree with the purpose of this debate, because more college graduates are hurting our economy because they create the technology that causes job loss.

Hi Eileen,
I disagree with you in the last part : "We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. "
We do need better technology. An example is the amount of pollution we produce which is astounding and is causing considerable damage to the ecosystem. Also, as the number of children per couple stabilizes around two per couple we face a myriad of problems : a decrease in the available workforce, greater need for healthcare, an increase in pensions for the elderly. And this is just the USA which is already a developed nation. Imagine the problems that the rest of the world is facing.What about looking outwards. Let's not just think about how we can solve our problems but how we can help with the problems of other nations in a non-intrusive manner.
Perhaps my viewpoint is a little bit skewed because as a computer scientist I must update my knowledge constantly; every year I must make my way through a 500+ pages book to keep my knowledge updated. For me education is a constant process.

 

[thanatos144]

IMO, there are 2 main purposes of modern day education
1) make a lot of money that is collected through payment for the schooling
2) make a lot of money by producing graduates who will make great strides in STEM areas

These areas of course are the hot areas for employment, because they have the potential to make a lot of cash in this technology race thing we've got going on.

Education is needed for a modern world society...it allows for our efficiency.
In my opinion, if job preservation is a concern then college graduates, especially in STEM areas are dangerous. We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. So, I have to disagree with the purpose of this debate, because more college graduates are hurting our economy because they create the technology that causes job loss.

Hi Eileen,
I disagree with you in the last part : "We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. "
We do need better technology. An example is the amount of pollution we produce which is astounding and is causing considerable damage to the ecosystem. Also, as the number of children per couple stabilizes around two per couple we face a myriad of problems : a decrease in the available workforce, greater need for healthcare, an increase in pensions for the elderly. And this is just the USA which is already a developed nation. Imagine the problems that the rest of the world is facing.What about looking outwards. Let's not just think about how we can solve our problems but how we can help with the problems of other nations in a non-intrusive manner.
Perhaps my viewpoint is a little bit skewed because as a computer scientist I must update my knowledge constantly; every year I must make my way through a 500+ pages book to keep my knowledge updated. For me education is a constant process.

We pollute less now then ever in history of this country. Your talking points are lies

 

[CultureCitizen]

IMO, there are 2 main purposes of modern day education
1) make a lot of money that is collected through payment for the schooling
2) make a lot of money by producing graduates who will make great strides in STEM areas

These areas of course are the hot areas for employment, because they have the potential to make a lot of cash in this technology race thing we've got going on.

Education is needed for a modern world society...it allows for our efficiency.
In my opinion, if job preservation is a concern then college graduates, especially in STEM areas are dangerous. We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. So, I have to disagree with the purpose of this debate, because more college graduates are hurting our economy because they create the technology that causes job loss.

Hi Eileen,
I disagree with you in the last part : "We don't need technology any stronger than it already is. "
We do need better technology. An example is the amount of pollution we produce which is astounding and is causing considerable damage to the ecosystem. Also, as the number of children per couple stabilizes around two per couple we face a myriad of problems : a decrease in the available workforce, greater need for healthcare, an increase in pensions for the elderly. And this is just the USA which is already a developed nation. Imagine the problems that the rest of the world is facing.What about looking outwards. Let's not just think about how we can solve our problems but how we can help with the problems of other nations in a non-intrusive manner.
Perhaps my viewpoint is a little bit skewed because as a computer scientist I must update my knowledge constantly; every year I must make my way through a 500+ pages book to keep my knowledge updated. For me education is a constant process.

We pollute less now then ever in history of this country. Your talking points are lies

On the contrary , you are prooving my point. We pollute less because there have been technological advances which have reduced pollution. Some years ago most cars had eight cylinders, nowdays the norm is to have a 6 or 4 cylinder car. We also see diessel cars whose milleage is quite impressive, specially when compared to an 8 cylinder car.

 

[Disir]

In order to decrease tuition costs, you will need to return to funding higher ed.

 

[dblack]

In order to decrease tuition costs, you will need to return to funding higher ed.

That's not how economics works.

 

[Disir]

In order to decrease tuition costs, you will need to return to funding higher ed.

That's not how economics works.

Fun filled fact: the cost of tuition increased because the funding to higher ed decreased.