Student Debt: Blame Law-Makers, Tax-Shirking Rich, War on Drugs, not Universities

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2014/06/student-shirking-universities.html

In honor of President Obama’s support for Senator Elizabeth Warren’s bill to address the student debt crisis by offering students with older debt loads lower interest rates [see video below], I’m reprinting this golden oldie. The statistics in it have only gotten worse from a social point of view in the past few years.

Student Debt: Blame Law-Makers, Tax-Shirking Rich, War on Drugs, not Universities
By Juan Cole | Jun. 9, 2014

Why is tuition so high in state universities that the NYT is wondering if families will go on being able to afford it?

As someone who has observed this rise in tuition over an academic career of 30 years, as graduate student and professor, I have some theories from an insider perspective.

~snip~

That statistic, whereby the University of Oregon went from having 33 percent of its total revenue from state sources in 1985 to 14 percent in 2005, was typical of what happened throughout the whole country. The typical revenue streams for state universities used to be 1) State support, 2) tuition and fees, 3) Federal grants, and 4) alumni donations and the resulting endowment. At some state universities, the state contribution may now be the fourth largest source.

~snip~

The Reagan/ Grover Norquist line that government is not the solution, government is the problem, and the demand for lower taxes (especially on the wealthy) was influential in many states. So essentially the American big business class of about 3 million people was given the opportunity to quadruple its vast wealth through lower taxes (when you lower taxes on a particular segment of the public, that is wealth distribution in their favor). Meanwhile public functions of government are cut back and everybody else gets potholes, closed public libraries, underfunded state universities, etc.

[Ed Suspicious]

1. My adviser just yesterday reminded me that our state used to susidize our cost per

credit to the tune of 75%. That susidiy is now at around 25%. Tuition rises for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most agregious is the fact that states are pulling out of higher ed snd telling students if you want it, you pay for it. They don't say it out loud, but they say it with ever budget cut to higher ed. So now my state continues to cut funding while at the same time freezing tuition hikes , which is probably ok for me , but future generations will be receiving a lower quality product at the same time as they are finding their degrees carrying less weight in the workforce. This will have to exacerbate the situation making a master's degree the new bachelor's.