Surging college costs price out the middle class, shifting to 2 year colleges

Surging college costs price out middle class



NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- What do you get when college costs skyrocket but incomes barely budge? Yet another blow to the middle class.

"As the out-of-pocket costs of a college education go up faster than incomes, it's pricing low and medium income families out of a college education," said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid sites FinAid.org and FastWeb.com.

The numbers confirm what most middle class families already know -- college is becoming so expensive, it's starting to hold them back.

The crux of the problem: Tuition and fees at public universities, according to the College Board, have surged almost 130% over the last 20 years -- while middle class incomes have stagnated.

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Income: If incomes had kept up with surging college costs, the typical American would be earning $77,000 a year. But in reality, it's nowhere near that.

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According to the Department of Education, the portion of middle-income students that enrolled in four-year colleges has dropped, while their enrollment in 2-year colleges has risen, over the last decade.



http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/13/news/economy/college_tuition_middle_class/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

Not to professors, that's for sure.

At state schools, especially UC and CSU, it's because of devastating budget cuts -- but what about private schools?

Colleges now build condo-style dorms, health clubs, luxury food courts, and the like in order to compete with other colleges for a dwindling number of prospective students. Such facilities are not free.

Out of the same need to compete, colleges have created huge "student life" bureaucracies, sort of the equivalent of a cruise director. Though most young people have little trouble thinking of things to do, colleges now believe they must have a large staff on hand to coordinate their students' leisure activities. At one time, student life meant a dean and a few assistants, but that will not do anymore.

This is where a lot of the money has gone, even at state universities, who love to build as much as anybody. It would be possible to make a university education affordable for the middle and working classes again, but it will mean, in addition to raising state appropriations, getting past the idea that a college should be a luxury resort.

when I was in college, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and interacted happily with humanity, colleges figured that if they provided a student lounge and the occasional movie on Friday or Saturday nights, "student life" was good. I was shocked to find out what passes for "student life" now on college campuses after speaking to several friends whose children are in junior year of high school and looking at colleges. My daughter is only 8, so I've got a few years, but I really feel sorry for these kids when they get out of college and are on their own. They are going to be responsible for their own leisure and recreational activities and won't know how to entertain themselves. How sad.

and concrete block walls. Movies in a lecture hall on Friday nights. A pool table and a piano in the basement.

Still, we managed to find things to do. When I look back on that time, I mostly remember hanging out with my friends and having fun. We apparently did not need a cruise director with a doctorate in Student Life Administrative Studies.

I was in grad school in the 90s during the beginning of the building boom, and I was amazed then at the new construction going up everywhere. It hasn't slowed down, or gotten any cheaper, in the years since.

Newt and the '94 Republicans kept pushing this meme, and the inevitable consequences have been a disaster. Parents who send their kids to state schools have to get several times their money's worth or they complain. That's why you see state schools with vast computer labs that are never more than half utilized (mostly being used to download MP3's or stream video), all stocked with computers that are regularly phased out for newer models. Great if you're looking to buy cheap computers at the surplus property auctions, but not the wisest use of taxpayer funds. And of course, the campuses are competing to be the "most wired" in the public eye, with not a square inch of campus that's not a WiFi hot spot. Great profits for vendors, all for a luxury.

I use technology a lot in teaching writing. We work in networked classrooms, critique drafts and turn in work with a course management system, etc. I wouldn't go back to doing things the old way.

Having said that, I do think we sometimes assume that technology is always and everywhere a great thing and then go out and look for ways to use it. And those great things we were predicting back in the 90s--that our students would have instant access to all the world's knowledge and thus become superbrains, and so on--have not happened.

Much of the money we spend on tech would be better invested in things like smaller classes, full-time faculty, etc.

is growing with incomes. The difference is the dollars for college are staying flat while the K-12 continues to grow at a rate much higher than inflation. At the end of the day, if the choice is between K-12 and college, then the decision has to break towards K-12. The state has an obligation to supply an adequate education to all children. A college education, while it has many societal benefits, primarily benefits the individual.

I know our colleges waste a lot of money, but I am amazed that they have kept the tuition increases under control as much as they have given the cut back of the state portion of the funding. Much of this involves the use of "slave" adjunct labor which is not necessarily a bad thing for quality (some of my worst instructors have been tenured even special chair faculty, while some of my best instructors have been adjunct faculty especially my Business Law and Corporate Finance classes for example).

None of this is an accident.

The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.


:evilfrown:

in the permanently stratified society will grow greater and greater. This is a young country and once a stable democracy. It will have great problems weathering the storms ahead because so many people have been disenfranchised. Basically, it has become a hollowed out nation. So sad. And we have hollowed out leaders at many levels and political parties.

In fact, I see a highly organized attack taking place, and this is simply one front.

thinking we make the best salaries in the world. In truth, the uber-rich have put all the workers of America into a poorhouse scenario so here we are today that most kids can't afford college. Disgraceful and the 1% should be flogged for creating America #2!