For state schools the cost of college is fueled by bloated administrators, we just don’t need all those associate deans, and the refusal of taxpayers to fund tuition support. In 1975 state funds paid something close to 75c of every dollar in tuition cost. Now students are asked to pay 85c of every dollar of tuition costs. Thankfully, the utter destruction coming to the GOP will save state support for higher education.

libfreeordie on December 22, 2012 at 2:23 PM

Yes, it’s also fueled by legions of useless educators teaching useless classes like “womyn’s studies”. Clean out the people that are there solely to indoctrinate students and costs will drop.

Additionally, taxpayers shouldn’t fund tutition support. You simply cannot keep taking from the shrinking pool of people who pay taxes to give goodies to those who don’t.

I have no idea where you think all this money will come from. You people are absolutely loony tunes.

libfreeordie on December 22, 2012 at 2:23 PM

Back in the 80s, my mom went to UC_ _ and paid the annual bill of $600 completely out of her own pocket with a part-time on-campus job.

Fast forward to today, I go to the same school, with an annual bill of $30,000, but pay less than 10% of that out of pocket due to automatic financial aid (I don’t see or have any control of that money, couldn’t refuse it if I wanted to). Now I know better than to confuse correlation with causation, but I’m charged 50 times what she was, even though I don’t see a lot of that cost, because of the huge amount of (mostly state) money that gets pumped into the school on my behalf. What happens if that state money goes away? I’m instantly a drop-out.

Our wonderful state government, in partnership with many universities just held our tuition costs hostage to a tax increase that guarantees NOTHING in regards to the stability of education costs. Meaning there WILL be another hostage crisis within five years.

And somehow the party of more government dollars with strings attached for schools is the answer to this..?

Because almost all education is a government monopoly and almost all education finance is a government monopoly there has been no market economic influence AT ALL in education, causing it to become bloated, inefficient, and basically useless.

wildcat72 on December 22, 2012 at 1:05 PM

When the government is the lender, there is no recourse to bankruptcy. I have met young adults who will be garnished the rest of their lives, because their income does not allow a garnishment large enough to take down the interest. The government hands out the loans like candy to babies. No skin off the school, as long as demographics hold. Demographics are contracting.

The new debtors are owned by the politicians who dangle bailouts in exchange for votes as if it was not the politicians who put them into slavery.

Round 2 of layoffs: Closure of Departments of Underwater Basketweaving and Grievance Studies.

This is a bubble that can’t burst soon enough. The education establishment is leading us down the road to self-destruction for almost a half century. There must be a separation of school and state, and school must be made accountable to parents and students through choice and competition with a free market.

petefrt on December 22, 2012 at 1:14 PM

Agreed. Government needs to get out of the student loan business, period. Keep the grants for the truly poor if you must, but beyond that, college should be financed via a mix of private scholarships, private loans (if banks are willing and view it as a good risk) and part-time wait staffing jobs. Watch the cost of higher education plummet when that happens. The way these schools justify their outrageous tuition increases every year is with the knowledge that the government will subsidize the loans for these kids to attend who otherwise couldn’t afford to. As with everything, when people are forced to pay for things out of their own pocket, they become a lot more discriminating and prices become a lot more competitive as a result.

Yup, the fed gubmint badly needs downsizing a la 10th Amendment. Back to bare bones would suit me fine.

petefrt on December 22, 2012 at 1:24 PM

We’d be in a far better situation if Washington, DC were in ruins whilst Detroit were a booming industrial metropolis rather than the other way around wouldn’t we?(replace industry with bureaucratic).

To expand: There needs to be a separation of EVERYTHING and State. The government’s powers were ENUMERATED for a reason…

wildcat72 on December 22, 2012 at 1:17 PM

Yup, the fed gubmint badly needs downsizing a la 10th Amendment. Back to bare bones would suit me fine.