Read the following article regarding the cost of going to college. Why does college cost so much more than it is use to? What is Richard Vedder's idea to solve the cost problem? What is a problem with his solution? In the broader context what are the implications of rising costs for a college education? What is one way to help bring the costs down?
7 Comments
Dalia Martin Del Campo
10/20/2011 03:48:35 am
To the majority of people in our society it makes sense to want low tuition in colleges. If we truly are the future, we want an educated one. The cost of college is and intimidating and in some cases the determining factor of going to college or not. You would assume that the solution would be to give out more financial aid, but that in fact, is the problem. In this article, Sandy Baum mentions that college is much more expensive now in days than it use to be because states are paying less of the cost than they used to. She also believes that as state budgets shrink, the students’ share of paying for education goes up. This is a problem mainly to the middle class families that do not have low enough incomes to apply for financial aid, but are not wealthy enough to pay $15,000 per year in tuition at UC Berkeley. Richard Vedder proposes that the government should limit grants and loans because there is a direct positive correlation between government aid and tuition. The problem with this solution is that by limiting the amount of financial aid, the low income families will not be able to afford it. Raising the cost for a college education implies that less people can afford it; therefore they will not go for a higher degree level unless they have the means to not have the need to take out loans. Room and board is a major portion of the overall college cost, which can be reduced by sharing an apartment with more people instead of living in the college dorms. Most colleges do require first year students to live in dorms, but this area could significantly decrease the cost.
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Cesar Ramirez
10/20/2011 11:23:28 am
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Cesar Ramirez
10/20/2011 11:51:29 am
I find it very surprising that tuition at a rigorous university such as UC Berkeley was around $700 a year and is now more than $15000 a year. It is even more difficult to take in that a large rise in tuition can be summarized into a rather "simple explanation." Sandy Baum argues that states are paying less of the cost for education and as they continue to do so, the students, meaning us, have to pay more of the share. Baum also adds that universities aren't as efficient as other industries. This is a factor that keeps tuition from going down. Learning does take time and that is hard to speed up. As bad as it is for both the students and the colleges, governors decide to get involved to push for more productivity out of professors. People like Richard Vedder, who have noticed trends where tuition fees rise because of an increase in government aid propose limiting grants and loan subsidies. With that said, tuition becomes a much greater hassle for low income families when they realize they will have more issues with affording to have a student attend a university. Vedder expects a reduction in the demand for college so that colleges can't raise fees. It sounds like he doesn't want people to attend universities so that others will have a relatively cheap way to get in. So does he want to sacrifice one's education or get a person educated? If there are students looking to study in a particular state, it would be best to look at colleges that will consider them as part of that state even though they come from somewhere else. Therefore, they would have to pay in-state tuition and not out-of-state tuition. While it doesn't necessarily reduce cost for a college, it keeps one from paying too much. For now, however, it will be hard for many students like us to get in to our "dream" school. It is something we will have to accept since tuition won't change over night. Will it raise another 2000% in the future?
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Catherine White
10/20/2011 12:15:45 pm
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Kirsten Sherman
10/20/2011 01:47:41 pm
College tuition has rapidly increased over the past few years. Like Catherine said, governments are not subsidizing education nearly as much as they have in the past. Sandy Baum states that "as state budgets shrink, the students' share of paying for education goes up." Richard Vedder's tells us that if in fact government aid was to decrease, our tuition costs for government would decrease as well. Vedder states that minimizing grants and loans would help us see the end to excessive increase in college tuition pricing."That reduces the demand for college, and that is going to tend to reduce the ability of colleges to raise tuition fees," Vedder says. I happen to disagree slightly with Vedder, because I believe a college education is critical for the average human in America. So there is a problem with Richard Vedder's theory. He is encouraging people not to go to college. Tuition costs have raised so much that getting an excellent tuition if you are part of a low income family becomes a huge hassle. Many students that actually acquire federal student loans end up in debt as soon as they leave college. THe article states that public schooling educates 80 percent of college students. This being the case, 80 percent of our population is overpaying for an education that leaves them in debt. More students would attend college if this was not the case. There are ways to reduce costs for college though. Room and board at college is a large portion of your payments. Choosing to live off campus and sharing an apartment or a house with one or more persons could reduce your tuition fees. Also, achieving an academic, athletic, or arts scholarship would also greatly help decrease your cost.
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Teddy Ulin
10/20/2011 03:46:26 pm
In today's global economy there is growing competition for students, and the increase demand leads to higher tuition costs. For example, as mentioned in the article tuition at UC Berkeley has risen to over $15,000 a year from only $700. Part of this mark up in price has to do with inflation, but the cost has gone up 2,000 percent-an increase dramatically higher than the rate of inflation. Richard Vedder suggests that the government should minimize loans and grants to school. He argues that this would reduce the demand for a college education, which in turn lead to a lowering of tuition prices. Many others including Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, feels completely the opposite. Their outlook is that the amount in aid hasn't risen fast enough so that it covers the same percentages of the costs as it used to. If aid did cover percentage wise of what it used to, tuition prices wouldn't be as nearly as much of an issue as they are today. In addition, the demand for a college education will remain the same or increase regardless of how much aid is given because of our world's competitive global economy. His solution only creates a further problem. If tuition prices continue to rise, less people will be able to afford college, especially low-income families. The reason for this is because grants won't cover nearly a high enough percentage as they used to, making it very difficult for average low-income kids to afford college. In the article, Sandy Baum states it simply and understandably when she mentions the basic idea that as state budget's go down, the students share of paying for education goes up. The article doesn't specify ways that could potentially bring costs down for pubic schools, but way to possibly help cover the costs is to make them more like private schools with funded endowments. This way they could offer grants rather than loans, thus reducing the percentage they have to pay which is really the goal. We have to be honest with ourselves, and the fact is tuition prices most likely will only rise not be reduced. This is why everyone has to work that much harder to earn grants to be able to afford college. Of course there are little things you can do to cut some costs, such as Dalia's example of reducing room and board costs, but for the most part there isn't one solution. As the global economy worsens and educational spending is cut in budgets, it becomes a more and more competitive world for today's youth.
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Dominic Skinner
10/23/2011 08:34:14 am
The price of college has been on the rise in recent years with no sign of slowing down. As states cut their budgets, public universities are forced to rely more and more on student tuition. Richard Vedder’s view on the matter is that the rising sticker price of college is due to the government trying to negate the problem by increasing financial aid. His solution would be to limit grants and loans so as to reduce the demand for college, which would keep prices low. Ideally everyone would like college tuition to be low because it can be the deciding factor in whether students can pursue a higher education or not. In theory this would mean more people would be able to pay for college, however this is not the case. If grants and loans were reduced it would have a direct impact on those who are less able to pay, catering to the rich and not the average American. Like Teddy said one way to bring down the rising cost of tuition would be to privatize public schools. They would no longer be impacted by the ever-changing state budgets, and would instead be reliant on endowments.
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