I guess my position on this issue is a matter of principle. Why does Wall Street get free money and bail-outs, while so many get out calculators when the same is extended to the working class? Answer: because from Capitol Hill’s perspective, the working class can drop dead. JPMorgan matters, you do not.
The banks are in on this. They are tickled pink that students are going into debt. The schools are also in on this because they view the students as customers, not as students. (I teach at two universities and a two-year college.) A carrot has been dangled in front of the parents, and they are tempted to take it. So, the solution is your kid shouldn’t go to college?
The cost of college, as just about everyone knows, has gone up through the clouds. The University of Pennsylvania makes public and easily available its tuition costs over the decades. Undergraduate tuition at UPenn in 1970 was $2,350. In 2019/2020, that same degree would have cost you over $50,000 in tuition.
As stated in a report on Intelligent.com:
“According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 1970-71 academic year, the average in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public non-profit university was $394. By the 2020-21 academic year, that amount jumped to $10,560, an increase of 2,580%.”
Enter the blowhard Baby Boomer: “When I was your age, I paid my way through college!” He (it’s almost always a he) paid a lot less in tuition; “his way” was far cheaper. Funny, he neglects to point that out.
And the bigger issue? Why is college not free in this country? When you attend university—even medical school—in Germany or France you don’t pay anything—or not much—to attend.
According to Research.com,
“In 2014, all public universities in Germany’s 16 states abolished undergraduate tuition fees but were reinstated for non-E.U. students in Baden-Württemberg in autumn 2017. Non-E.U. students in Baden-Württemberg must now pay 3,000 EUR ($3,500) per year, with a 1,300 EUR ($1,600) reduction for second degrees.”
Why do we not have that in the United States? Probably for the same reason we do not have universal healthcare.
Of course, this story has a racial component. Black students tend to take on more debt and deal less successfully with those loans. According to Vox, “systemic racism makes it so Black students have to both get an education and take out formidable loans to do it; the labor market is tilted against them at any education level, and they lack intergenerational wealth.”
So, give the kids a break. This one’s easy. And the money’s there. The money’s always there.
