Community | December 03, 2008 | 2 comments

Higher Education May Soon Be Unaffordable for Most Americans

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/education/03college.html?_r=1&em

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goingforawalk
As a witness to the impending debt of higher education this comes as no surprise to me. The question is - what is the Nation going to do about it? How can continuing your education be more affordable? How do we move away from College Education as "service industry?" Perhaps we should take a look at the European system where students choose a focus of study early on and must pass a series of exams to continue to higher education, as opposed to the American system that is often criticized as hosting the token "party school" mentality and College as "babysitter" for those who aren't quite ready to go out into the "real world."

Thoughts on this from Graduates and those in school and looking at attending school?

From the article:

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the biennial report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

. . .

“When the economy is good, and state universities are somewhat better funded, we raise tuition as little as possible,” he said. “When the economy is bad, we raise tuition and sock it to families, when people can least afford it. That’s exactly the opposite of what we need.”

More at link. . .
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2 comments // Higher Education May Soon Be Unaffordable for Most Americans

  • ReddFeary83
    • 0
      ReddFeary83  

    • If I would have had to do better in high school in order to continue to a higher education, I may have actually done it instead of dropped out. I've attended college for two years now, and I'm likely to be paying for it for the duration of my life. I just hope I can still afford to send my 6 year-old daughter to college when she's ready to go, because she is.

    • 3 years ago
  • Icedude
    • 0
      Icedude  

    • I think training programs such as vocational schools should be made more available and less costly, this way people can find ways to more higher paying jobs to afford the higher education, but as to the rising prices of schools, I think they should lower the prices and raise the standards and increase funding for scholarships. If not, my recommendation as always is join the military.

    • 3 years ago
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