AMERICAblog: College tuitions increasingly out of reach in US
nogo postal
· 11 months ago
After gutting their Pell Grants...our son and daughter saw their loan rates jump from 3.5% to over 9% My advice to them upon graduation? Declare bankruptcy. One did...one clings to that old fashioned belief of paying off accrued debts like my wife and I did after losing our house in 1985...
usagi
· 11 months ago
Actually, most student loan debt is no longer dischargable through bankruptcy.
green_libertarian
· 11 months ago
You haven't been able to discharge student loans in bankruptcy for quite awhile now, at least 10 years...
Josh Yelon
· 11 months ago
Median household income has only risen 14% since 1982. I don't know where they got the 147% figure - unless "median family income" is something different than "median household income."
Zorba
· 11 months ago
I went to college on a National Merit Scholarship, plus working full time in the summer and part time during the school year, and my parents had to chip in very little. My kids (29 and 31 years old) got scholarships, worked, and we were able to pay for the rest. I don't know how families can now pay for college tuition. The academic scholarships have not kept up with the increasing college costs. If your kid is a stellar athlete going to a Division I school on an athletic scholarship, sure. Otherwise, forget it. College should be affordable for every child who qualifies. Otherwise, we will increasingly take a back seat to the rest of the world.
Webster
· 11 months ago
To hell with the salaries paid the University presidents--take a look at what they're paying the stupid coaches. That's where you'll find the financial obscenities.
Wild_Weasel
· 11 months ago
COLLEGES = THE NEW PROFIT CENTERS
Or, how to monitize education, and ruin a nation!
usagi
· 11 months ago
Colleges aren't immune to the inflation and health care costs hitting every other business. Do you have any idea how expensive the infrastructure of a college is, especially for the specialized materials? Not to mention the unfunded mandates from the Dept of Education (did you know that every school in the country that receives federal funds is required to observe "Constitution Day" on the 17th of September every year? There's a small cottage industry producing the materials to comply with that little grand idea...).
Webster
· 11 months ago
Perhaps if there had been a "Constitution Day" when Bush was in school, maybe there would have been one of those days in those years when he wasn't drunk and he'd have learned something.
cheetos
· 11 months ago
I went to college in California during Reagan's Governor years. State college/university tuition was virtually free ($50/quarter) when I started and thankfully I finished just in the nick of time before Reagan with his 'education is a priviledge, not a right' crap went into effect. I think all you can 'thank' Governor/President Ronald Reagan for getting the ball rolling on out of control rising costs of higher education.
annatopia
· 11 months ago
read this earlier today.
and yea, i'd pretty much kill for $500 per semester tuition. ug, but don't get me started. we deregulated state school tuition in texas a few years ago. i'm now paying nearly double what the hubby paid just 2 & 1/2 years ago. and of course we "make too much money" to qualify for what's left of pell grants, leaving loans as our only option, which of course are becoming more and more unavailable...
i shudder to think how much we'll have to pay to put a kid thru college in the future.
Rhetor
· 11 months ago
Here's my problem with this report. It fails to talk about *WHY* costs are rising so much. I teach at a school in a low-ranked southern state, where the majority of our students are first time college students and poor.
We're currently funded at 79% of what we should be funded at--essentially, at 1970's rates--and we just had a 1 million dollar plus budget cut. (This is the second cut/return money episode in 10 years). Our health care costs have increased by 2 million dollars over the last 5 years, and our energy costs are increasing as well. Technology demands and costs are on the rise. Grant money is drying up and often doesn't cover actual costs of running a grant or a lab.
We have four sources of income: tuition; legislative appropriations (decreasing); grants (decreasing/drying up) and private donations (uh HUH!)
It would be nice if one of those articles looked at the actual complexity of academic funding while they're decrying the increase in tuition.
Jim Maynard
· 11 months ago
Another crisis our political leaders have ignored too long: Student Loans! Banks have made $billions off of student loans, guaranteed by the Gov., and many have just been bailed out.. But people with student loans THEY CANNOT PAY get no relief. You cannot wipe student loans out by declaring bankruptcy! Another nice provision in the new bankruptcy bill.. I had $55,000 in student loans when I quit graduate school. With all the interest from the past 20 years, I now owe over $100,000. I got my loans consolidated through the dept of education (a program the Republicans have been trying to kill), I'm on a "income contingent repayment plan", but even if I paid the minimum monthly payments the rest of my life, I WILL NEVER EVEN TOUCH THE PRINCIPLE, the amount I originally borrowed! I have a M.A. (in Sociology), and was ABD (all but dissertation) doctoral candidate, but was unable to finish my doctoral dissertation. With the Ph.D, I was never able to get a real job. I worked as a temp for many years, and have had a job for the past 10 years, and make less than $30,000 I am in Ch. 13 Bankruptcy, but will still have to pay the Student Loans!
Student Loans are a scam! In Western European (Democratic Socialists) c ountries, no one needs to take out loans to go to college (or graduate school!) because all education, including college, is PAID, Tuition Free!
Student Loans should be forgiven completely, based on income, and all public colleges should be tuition free. Maybe we can get to this after single-payer universal health care.
I agree, the way student loans are structured is a massive scam, crippling the young workforce before it even has a chance, and sucking money out of the financial system which people would otherwise either be spending or saving. I graduated a decade ago. I have paid thousands and thousands of dollars in student loan interest. The amount I owe today is EXACTLY the same as the amount I owed the day I graduated. I feel like I have been robbed, and will continue to be robbed, until the day I die. And people who graduated a short 3 or 4 years after I did owe 3 or 4 times as much as I did! People think my generation are under-achieving. But when you graduate with such massive debt and such a large expense as these loan repayments right off the bat - its so much more difficult to get yourself established. Harder to make your other payments, come up with money for a house or apartment, hard to get decent clothes, etc. And still my BA degree is practically worthless in terms of earning power.
moreleesafer
· 11 months ago
Our Pres. Elect and his wife only paid off their student loans within the last few years and they are in their mid 40's. The only reason they were even student loan free when he ran for pres. is because of the success of his two books.
elitist-my a$$.
I saw that coming and decided I didn't want to be in debt for the rest of my life.
I went into the military and went to school using their 75% tuition assistance/reimbursement. During my two enlistments I was able to come within a semester of achieving my AA and BS (i completed both simultaneously). The remainder I put on a credit card and then paid off over the ensuing semester. no loans. I have only one child and his father and I plan to pay what isn't covered by scholarships, financial aid, or his own job.
green_libertarian
· 11 months ago
The first California Governor Jerry Brown, in the early 60's, totally reorganized the state funded university system there, basically making it as cheap as possible whether you went to the UC, the CalState, or a Community College (which were free until about 1981).
Basically, the idea was that a more educated workforce would make more money, and end up paying back the State in increased state income taxes.
I was attending the Cal State University system in the late 70's thru the early-mid 80's, when the second Jerry Brown (Jr.) was Governor. Tuition was $79 a quarter in 1976, which you could earn working a part time job in about 2 weeks, maybe 3.
By 1981-82, tuition had increased to maybe $120 a quarter, but that was during a time of very high general inflation.
When Republican Governor Dukemajian come into to office in '83, he doubled tuition charges, and just a few years later, tuition was around $400 a quarter, increased FAR above the rate of inflation.
Basically, state funded College education became unaffordable except for the rich, and those willing to borrow 10's of thousands of dollars.
It's completely ridiculous nowadays.
fl79tr
· 11 months ago
We need to replace our military industrial complex with an educational, research and social development complex.
benb
· 11 months ago
President Bush bragged about being a C student and becoming President. Who needs to know anything anymore?
Course while pursuing my degree in Industrial Engineering a decade ago, I was often the only American in the classroom. I should contact my old school mates in India, Asia, and Russia and see if they're hiring.
Dennis Victor
· 11 months ago
The NYT has issued a major correction to their article confirming the figures are NOT inflation-adjusted.
Correction: December 4, 2008 Because of an editing error, an article on Wednesday about the increasing cost of higher education gave an incorrect context for two figures: the 439 percent increase in college tuition and fees and the 147 percent increase in median family income since 1982. Those figures were not adjusted for inflation. The error was repeated for the data in an accompanying chart. A corrected chart appears at nytimes.com/national.
The article also described incorrectly the report for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education that cited the figures. It is produced every other year, not annually.
College Parent
· 11 months ago
With tuition, room and board now topping $50,000 a year at some schools, maybe it is time to not only cut salaries at these schools, but how about cutting back on building new facilities? Colleges complain about a lack of funds, while at the same time spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new tracks, fields, millions on synthetic turf, and tens of millions on a new science building, or a new music building. Every college campus I have visited has a new building under construction.
onceler
· 11 months ago
"even overseas students" - hm, well, without grant money, most 'overseas students' have long seen higher education in the US as being way, way, way beyond their reach. we have the most expensive higher ed. in the world! have for many, many years. foreign students come here when 1) they are very wealthy, 2) they get a Fulbright grant or similar scholarship. there aren't middle class kids around the world considering US colleges in any significant numbers. most people would think you were joking if you suggested such a thing to them.
JR
· 11 months ago
One of the things that should REALLY scare us gay liberals is the fact that un-educated people overwhelmingly support conservative agendas. Case in point the new polls that show the uneducated and evangelicals voted for prop 8. Is the escalation of tuitions in the last decade a result of the Bush doctrine and an effort to dumb down society so the Republican party can be rebuilt in the next generation as an even more socially conservative group? We may loose an entire generation of new voters if the college tuition trend continues.
Marck
· 11 months ago
You nailed it!!! The neocons and freakvangelicals do not want people educated. The wealthy will always be able to obtain a college degree. The Prop 8 supporters were largely undereducated individuals. This also explains why Prop 8 was so popular among African Americans who are less likely to have college degrees (and sadly, even high school diplomas) than whites.
All Comments
My advice to them upon graduation? Declare bankruptcy. One did...one clings to that old fashioned belief
of paying off accrued debts like my wife and I did after losing our house in 1985...
Or, how to monitize education, and ruin a nation!
I think all you can 'thank' Governor/President Ronald Reagan for getting the ball rolling on out of control rising costs of higher education.
and yea, i'd pretty much kill for $500 per semester tuition. ug, but don't get me started. we deregulated state school tuition in texas a few years ago. i'm now paying nearly double what the hubby paid just 2 & 1/2 years ago. and of course we "make too much money" to qualify for what's left of pell grants, leaving loans as our only option, which of course are becoming more and more unavailable...
i shudder to think how much we'll have to pay to put a kid thru college in the future.
We're currently funded at 79% of what we should be funded at--essentially, at 1970's rates--and we just had a 1 million dollar plus budget cut. (This is the second cut/return money episode in 10 years). Our health care costs have increased by 2 million dollars over the last 5 years, and our energy costs are increasing as well. Technology demands and costs are on the rise. Grant money is drying up and often doesn't cover actual costs of running a grant or a lab.
We have four sources of income: tuition; legislative appropriations (decreasing); grants (decreasing/drying up) and private donations (uh HUH!)
It would be nice if one of those articles looked at the actual complexity of academic funding while they're decrying the increase in tuition.
But people with student loans THEY CANNOT PAY get no relief. You cannot wipe student loans out by declaring bankruptcy! Another nice provision in the new bankruptcy bill..
I had $55,000 in student loans when I quit graduate school. With all the interest from the past 20 years, I now owe over $100,000. I got my loans consolidated through the dept of education (a program the Republicans have been trying to kill), I'm on a "income contingent repayment plan", but even if I paid the minimum monthly payments the rest of my life, I WILL NEVER EVEN TOUCH THE PRINCIPLE, the amount I originally borrowed!
I have a M.A. (in Sociology), and was ABD (all but dissertation) doctoral candidate, but was unable to finish my doctoral dissertation. With the Ph.D, I was never able to get a real job. I worked as a temp for many years, and have had a job for the past 10 years, and make less than $30,000
I am in Ch. 13 Bankruptcy, but will still have to pay the Student Loans!
Student Loans are a scam! In Western European (Democratic Socialists) c ountries, no one needs to take out loans to go to college (or graduate school!) because all education, including college, is PAID, Tuition Free!
Student Loans should be forgiven completely, based on income, and all public colleges should be tuition free. Maybe we can get to this after single-payer universal health care.
See: Student Loan Justice
http://www.studentloanjustice.org/
elitist-my a$$.
I saw that coming and decided I didn't want to be in debt for the rest of my life.
I went into the military and went to school using their 75% tuition assistance/reimbursement. During my two enlistments I was able to come within a semester of achieving my AA and BS (i completed both simultaneously). The remainder I put on a credit card and then paid off over the ensuing semester. no loans.
I have only one child and his father and I plan to pay what isn't covered by scholarships, financial aid, or his own job.
Basically, the idea was that a more educated workforce would make more money, and end up paying back the State in increased state income taxes.
I was attending the Cal State University system in the late 70's thru the early-mid 80's, when the second Jerry Brown (Jr.) was Governor. Tuition was $79 a quarter in 1976, which you could earn working a part time job in about 2 weeks, maybe 3.
By 1981-82, tuition had increased to maybe $120 a quarter, but that was during a time of very high general inflation.
When Republican Governor Dukemajian come into to office in '83, he doubled tuition charges, and just a few years later, tuition was around $400 a quarter, increased FAR above the rate of inflation.
Basically, state funded College education became unaffordable except for the rich, and those willing to borrow 10's of thousands of dollars.
It's completely ridiculous nowadays.
Course while pursuing my degree in Industrial Engineering a decade ago, I was often the only American in the classroom. I should contact my old school mates in India, Asia, and Russia and see if they're hiring.
Correction: December 4, 2008
Because of an editing error, an article on Wednesday about the increasing cost of higher education gave an incorrect context for two figures: the 439 percent increase in college tuition and fees and the 147 percent increase in median family income since 1982. Those figures were not adjusted for inflation. The error was repeated for the data in an accompanying chart. A corrected chart appears at nytimes.com/national.
The article also described incorrectly the report for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education that cited the figures. It is produced every other year, not annually.