T
he inflation of college prices has far outstripped probably most other categories of inflation. The student debt situation is modern day indentured servitude, particularly because the loans can never be forgiven through bankruptcy or other such means.
Absolutely correct. And this is just one reason why, as a conservative, I would get the federal government out of the loan business entirely. I "might" allow VA loan guarantees but that is about it. Most veterans I know do not use them because you can get a much better deal on the private market if you have good credit. (And GI or not, if you do not nobody has any business loaning you money for a house, particularly on the taxpayer's dime.)
But home loans are a similar deal. The real estate industry needs them. Without government loans/guarantees, given what people earn these days, the 20% down payment for a house would be impossible for the overwhelming majority of people.
In both education and housing loans, the influence of taxpayer money and legal intervention drives up the price of goods and services. What incentive does a university have to keep costs down when the federal government will loan the student whatever it takes? What choice does the student have?
If you want to see just how preposterous all of this is look at the cost of online university classes. They cost bupkis to produce and present yet the student pays as much or more for them than they do for the 'real' thing. They are absolute cash cows.
Check it out. The 300 level sociology course I am teaching is being offered in the classroom first semester and online the second. The cost per semester hour at the school makes the online class cost more than $$2100.00 Consider. The classroom edition of my course meets once a week for three hours. The class size is 80 and it is always full. At the in state tuition level of $727.00 per semester hour that class generates $58,160.00 for the university. Absolutely outrageous especially given that the class requires supplies consisting of a couple of thousand sheets of paper and a few boxes of gloves. That is it. No equipment other than a computer projector. Two part time adjuncts which, I can assure you, do not put so much as a dent in that amount.
And they can do this precisely because there is a never ending source of money that they can rely upon.
Then, in another thread, we can get into the notion that a great many degrees are simply ticket punches for jobs that would not require them at all if our high schools turned out 1969 level math and English skills. (In those days one could have a great middle class career on a high school diploma.)
The conservative position would be smaller government, getting us out of this business and saving the taxpayers money. Sure it would suck for Mississippi to have to fund its own universities (without California money) on its tax base but they would figure it out just like they did before the feds started throwing taxpayer money around like it was confetti.
And yes. It is indentured servitude. It is outrageous that an English teacher in my town with a Masters in Education degree amasses $58,000 in school debt. She is expected to repay this loan on a
pre-tax income of $23.00 per hour.
The whole system is a disgrace.
Final shot. The tuition for international students at the Sorbonne is less than 1/2 the resident cost for a student at a mediocre US state university. (About 1/3 actually.) And the semester cost for an EU student is less than the cost of one semester hour in the US. Imagine the top graduate of a high school in the aforementioned Mississippi considering studying in one of the worlds great universities (Sorbonne) because it is cheaper than Mississippi State.