The reason why college is getting so expensive (more than before!!)...

..is because of the simple law of supply and demand.

Even among publicly funded colleges, this still applies. The more the college charges in tuition etc., the less kids will want to take classes and the less the profit margin is, even though a lot of said tuition is paid for by taxes (because, not all of it is paid for by taxes, plus, the more kids applying for government funded tuition, the less of it is available).

The proportion of people in the U.S. that needs a high level of education is rising because low-level factory etc. jobs are being outsourced in such high quantities. You might say it's all minimum wage laws etc., but if there were a huge influx of FACTORY etc. jobs that use to be here and not overseas, there'd be a lot LESS people that would NEED a college education to get a high-level job. (Again, more people need high-education jobs because low-education jobs are being outsourced so much and don't exist as much in this nation. Very simple).

Thus, there'd be less people going to college (by proportion) and colleges would not be able to charge as much.

It's really freaking simple.

 

Goin' to college ain't what its cracked up to be...

The higher education bubble has popped
August 10, 2011 - Traditionally, Americans have firmly believed in two core investments: college and home ownership. Then the housing bubble popped. Is education next?

 

If I had a son ready to graduate high school I would encourage him to take up a trade, go work with a builder, a plumber, an electrician, etc. as a helper, a gopher. Work hard, get exercise, learn real world skills and someday start his own business.

 

College tuition has gone up because the government guarantees student loans, which creates an excessive demand for college education. The market responds with an increase in the tuition. Its simple economics.

 

The reason demand for college has gone up is because many jobs that previously did not require a colege degree now do. This has nothing to do with what students learn in college, it is because the surplus of people with college degrees has made it easier for companies to require a college degree for a job. it is a prejudice of employers who assume that a college education makes for a better, more intelligent employee like themselves.

Thirty years ago few secretarial jobs were open to college graduates, now it is a requrement. Entry level jobs in many technical fields that used to be filled by tech school graduates now require an engineering degree.

As a result, most young people see no hope without a college education so demand has increased enormously and so has the cost. This is having a pernicuous effect on overall economic growth as students now graduate with huge debt into low paying jobs. Their debt and low wages causes them to delay the establishment of independent living which in turn reduces demand for cars, rentals, furniture etc. It also delays marriage, children, the purchase of a home and everything that comes with that.

The move to college education has been a boon to colleges and loan financiers but has put a huge drag on the rest of the economy.

It has also helped to create a huge shortage of skilled tradesmen but the primary blame for that is the "right to work" movement which decimated the unions which were the primary training providers for such workers. As unions lost work they closed their training programs. An entire generation of plumbers electricians and skilled carpenters is missing and those who are left are all retiring. $Billions in construction work is not happening because there are no skilled tradesmen to do the work.

There are lots of 50 year olds on construction sites and some in their 20s but not many in between. Wages are getting very high for skilled workers. The developers and contractors who fought for right to work laws are paying far more now. Their imagined savings were nothing but a short term illusion. If construction picks up to its historic norm the wages of skilled tradesmen will skyrocket as builders compete to get projects done. Many are returning to the unions, who can guarantee both the skill and number of workers who show up every day. There is no guarantees with non-union labor.

 

Yes, it's really freaking simple.

There will be no "reindustrialization" of America unless it's with Robots.

If it was robots replacing humans in America the effect would be the same and then you would be complaining like a luddite that machines were replacing men on the job, which is the entire freaking point.

 

I'll be honest with you, most people get almost nothing from college, the problem is really high schools. You can easily graduate from high school functionally illiterate and without any appreciable math skills. That's why college educated employees are attractive -- it's basicly that it finishes up what government elementary and high schools fail to teach. You won't really use that business degree -- as fast as technology and business conditions change, most of that will be obsolete before the ink dries on your diploma. The diploma, does however prove that you can read and write unlike most HS grads.

If our education system was of any use, college degrees wouldn't be needed for 90% of occupations.

 

Most of the four year college ethos is a joke, there needs to be a greater emphasis put on online education and vocational schools. The emphasis put on the full "liberal education" (in the liberal arts sense of the term not a political sense) should be put aside because it is irrelevant, the purpose of college in our day needs to focus upon training for a job, not a "model education" which flies over the heads of most people.

 

I met plenty of functional illiterates in college, they were all business majors.

 

You're just mad because they can hustle.. It's not wise to bite the hand that feeds you. Unless....

 

Yea, and all the student loan and guarantee programs were started by Democrats in violation of the US Constitution. Ultimately Democrats will do to the college tuition market what they did to the housing market while they violate the Constitution with their wealth distribution and social engineering schemes.

 

Reason for the increase is: State run colleges and universities are often combined with the Department of Education (DOE) of each State in the USA. They are funded by the taxpayer via State taxes of all types.

During the boom years of expansion during the early 1990s, each US State was making great revenue. Hence, due to the balanced budget laws they had to spend the money each fiscal year. Guess were a lions share of that extra tax money went to? No, It went to building infrastructure for State funded public schools and Universities and hireing more personnel to fill those schools. Hence, some states built over 100 schools since the early 1990s. And now that there is way less tax revenue comming in to the States, they can't afford to keep those massive amounts of schools open and funded. Understand this decline in revenue has been going on since 2006.

FYI; the DOE of each State in the USA consumes over 65% of all your tax revenue. And how did this happen you say? well, the Powerfull Government Employee Unions (AKA Public Unions) pushed for more teachers and administrators, as well as money for all kinds of programs, hence building up a massive membership of union support, all paid with your tax dollars.

Because Your USA State can't afford to keep all the schools open, they will be passing on some of the cost to the consumer of the DOE. And they can only do that at the college level. In addition, the most important thing to note here is that your State can't afford to pay for at least 1/2 of your DOE's obligation. So the DOE has been taking out loans at high interest rates through private lending corporations like banks, investment corporations, and mutual funds. By issuing/selling Millions in corporate bonds to investors, they are using that money to keep schools open, and paying high interest to do it. Most DOE and schools are rated as A or BBB+.

This may be illegal, but they are doing it. The news in your state will never talk about it and the DOE want's to keep it on the down low. In other words, they do not want people to panic.

So there you have it. That is why tuition is going up.

If you listen to NPR or some limited comercial news you may get the skinny on what I'm saying here. But then again, this is very confidential stuff that boarders on illegal activites of the State's DOE in many States.

If you want to get an Idea of how much they borrow, just look a an annual financial statement from any mutual bond fund.

 

That has little or nothing to do with my point, at least, not directly.

Although of course, you are in support of pure selfishness on the part of rich people, as usual. Well tell me this-if it's okay in your eyes for "rich" people to be motivated by pure selfishness, why isn't it okay for non-"rich" people to be motivated by pure selfishness? For example, old people getting medicaid for no reason other than that they need it?

In fact, old people getting medicaid is less motivated by pure selfishness than rich people destroying jobs in order to make more profit; it's simply a way to survive. Rich people don't even require an excess 10-20 or so million, on top of their 100 million bucks, to survive or be prosperous.

 

As unfortunate as it is, I agree with you on this entirely.

 

That would be a very sad thing to advise your own child to do. I'd advise it to a hard-working and somewhat clever-but not very intellectual-person (that I didn't personally care about), but not someone that I respected and was close to me.

The reality is, based on what I've read, that, in current times, you have a not-too-great chance of being remotely wealthy without a college degree..unfortunately.

This is why so many people want to go to college these days.

 

Lol, I love uneducated people discrediting college. I don't have a single friend from school that does not have a job and is not making more than they were three years ago.

And this is the bottom line. Of course some uneducated sap can make money. But the fact of the matter is education pays. Don't take it from me, take it from the facts.

 

This is a HUGE misconception, IMHO.

The MAIN, that's right the MAIN, reason why this correlation exists is solely because employers prefer college educated people, because they assume they're harder working etc. It's a SUPERFICIAL certificate that doesn't do very much at all in terms of indicating knowledge or understanding, let alone proficiency, in the tasks required for a relevant job.

College is NOT a test of your proficiency in whatever your future job demands. What it is, is a test of will power, language ability and ability to follow instructions..or at least, an indication of such-to employers, that is.

 

Simple, maybe. But the fact is that Americans are becoming stupider.

 

Now you're being purposely absurd?

We need more college jobs because non-education-requiring ones are either being replaced by machines or desperate people from foreign nations..or illegal desperate people from Mexico.

 

There is no misconception here. Statistics is the only way to represent the difference between college graduates and non-college graduates. Of course you can always point to high school graduates who make it big and you can point to college graduates who fail. But the fact of the matter is there is a correlation between those who graduate college and a higher income than those who don't.

Everything relating to education and intelligence the scale is skewed to those who have more education. There is no "misconception" to it.

 

How is this "absurd"? It is merely fact that your education system ranks 14th in the world.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

 

Because as I've mentioned, the reason why people need college degrees more now than before isn't because of people getting "dumber"; that's totally absurd and makes no sense whatsoever.

As I've said numerous times, it's because of outsourcing and automation taken to a runaway extent, as well as (IMO irrational) preference, on the part of employers, for college educated people who don't necessarily have any more skill or potential than people who didn't waste tens of thousands of dollars on college.

 

Once again, this is average rank. America doesn't strive to be the best at being average. We have the best higher education system in the entire world. We strive at being excellent not average.

 

Oh, you're talking about "need". No question there.

 

Exactly!!

It's a correlation/causation mistake, to some extent. The reason why people who graduate college have (on average) higher paying jobs, is NOT really because of said college education teaching them to have the skills needed to do these jobs. That's an absolute misunderstanding based on everything I've come to understand based on everything I've read.

The reason why people who graduate college have (on average) higher paying jobs, is MERELY because employers are biased towards potential employees who are college educated! Plain and simple! It's also probably in large part because of the fact that if you graduate college, you're more likely to have high natural intelligence and hard work ethic than someone who didn't.

In any case, it's NOT because of colleges teaching people all this stuff that magically turns them into being better and more skilled employees at anything.

It's all a huge SCAM, really.