By SUZANNE DOWNING
From the American working-class person’s vantage point, the list of near-worthless college degrees from publicly funded universities is too long.
The bookends for these questionable degrees may be the gender-transgender-queer-sexuality studies degree offered by the University of Arizona and the master’s degree in “foresight” that can be earned in a year at the University of Houston.
As the ventriloquist’s dummy Mortimer Snerd liked to say, “Who’d have thunk it?”
On the shelf with these fanciful fields are volumes of grievance-studies degrees — black studies, women’s studies, critical race and ethnic studies, or this one: An interdisciplinary studies degree with a minor in intersectionality studies from Utah State University.
These are dilettante diplomas for those planning careers in government and nonprofits, many of which are, if we’re honest, surrogate government agencies that masquerade as independent from their funding troughs.
Private sector employers look at such credentials on resumes and groan. These degree holders are not prepared to work in the real world or add value to companies. They are not producers or innovators.
Our colleges are failing us by churning out entitled and surprisingly often illiterate graduates who want to be paid for showing up to work in their “Nevertheless, She Voted” t-shirts, their pumps primed to sue their employers at the slightest workplace inconvenience or for not being able to work from home.
Increasingly, Americans understand the universities that parents send their children to these days have become indoctrination camps. Teens go out the door and arrive at academia as normal, young people, entering the halls of knowledge in relatively good shape. What the higher education industry launches from its halls is often an illogical, anxious, confused graduate with a degree in equity, diversity, and inclusion, and a student loan debt the size of a house down payment.
Into this public recognition of questionable return on investment comes President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive the student loan debts of millions of recent college graduates.
Biden’s plan is evidence that a college diploma doesn’t confer any degree of common sense. Millions of Americans who did not go to college can figure out quickly they should not have to pay back the college loans for which someone else signed responsibility. After all, that’s what GoFundMe is for.
It insults the intelligence of these Americans that we’re even having this national conversation.
The U.S. Supreme Court sent a strong signal last month that Biden’s scheme to forgive $10,000 to $20,000 per federal student loan borrower is unconstitutional. The justices are expected to make a decision by the end of June.
To be clear, this is a separate matter from the predatory student loan case that the Ninth Circuit weighed in on last week, permitting the case against certain colleges to move forward, and allowing student loan borrowers to have their debts canceled. That case involves about 200,000 borrowers and a $6 billion debt relief to students who say schools misled them about the quality of academic programs or other related promises, such as job guarantees.
Conservatives in Congress are not waiting for the black robes to decide on the “get out of school free” question. Lawmakers are using the Congressional Review Act process to contest the ability of Biden to simply buy his re-election, one loan payment at a time. This will be the fourth time that the CRA has been used to tell the president he is flunking American Public Policy 101.
This coming week, the U.S. House will likely pass the CRA and send it to the Senate, where it appears to have bipartisan support. Biden may veto the CRA, but he still risks being schooled by the Supreme Court.
What would the CRA do? It puts an end to the president’s pause on student loan payments, which has been extended six times and costs Americans $5 billion a month. This current deferral of payments will cost $195 billion by the time the current Biden extension expires in August.
Only an elitist mind thinks it’s a good idea that the people who went to college should have their debts covered by those who didn’t, through a $400 billion transfer of responsibility.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, only 56% of Americans think a four-year college degree is worth the price of admission. A Cato Institute poll showed that up to 76% of Americans oppose transferring student debt to taxpayers if it drives up the price of college, and two-thirds oppose it if taxes would be increased.
In a perfect world, American universities would be held in high regard, and be producing graduates ready to move the country forward and solve real-world problems.
That’s not the world we’re living in. Our higher education institutions are broken, and we have a federal government trying to force us to pay for their misdeeds.
Congress should pass the CRA quickly and send Biden a message: The working people of America are busy wrapping our minds around the $32 trillion in debt that we are yoked with. Americans are not in the mood to pay down a college graduate’s debt so that young person can buy a brand new, federally subsidized e-car, while working-class Americans face living out of their old Ford Broncos.
Suzanne Downing is publisher of Must Read Alaska.
Of course, taxpayers shouldn’t have to bail out any college degree, and not just worthless ones, and there are plenty of those.
What about people like me who worked their way through college? Should they get a refund?
It is hard to believe that there are so many stupid people who sign up for worthless degrees, or any degree, and then expect someone else to pay for it.
John, as someone who also worked his way through college, the big problem with these “student loans” is that they cannot be erased by bankruptcy. Our bankruptcy laws are designed to hold harmless folks that have no chance to get out from under their debt. That is also the case for many who took on these student loans and I see no reason they shouldn’t be able to benefit from that same hold harmless thing.
That said, an arbitrary bailout for all student loans doesn’t have my support.
I am about to have a heart attack, I think — first, yesterday, I find myself in full agreement with Maureen Suttman, and now today, here, with Bill Yankee!
My world is turning upside-down!
I will add here that some of my education was paid for by taxpayers under the G I Bill. Still OK, Jeff?
The stars aligned and Bill Yankee was right on something. Who’d have thunk it? Sadly, the earth revolves and this alignment will end.
Bill, the GI Bill isn’t a taxpayer bail-out like this loan forgiveness nonsense. The GI bill is a contractual obligation between you and the US government. You served and as part of your remuneration for this service the government agreed to pay an amount for your continued education. Coincidentally the same facts apply to all those students, who took out loans. They have a contractual obligation to re-pay.
In general it has always bothered me, how institutions of higher learning set tuition so high that most students feel compelled to take out loans, while universities sit on millions of endowment funds. Regulating tuition (they take federal money after all) would be a meaningful first step, but this administration isn’t about actually fixing anything, but simply preserving the status quo, by letting people of the hook at the expense of the taxpayer.
Taxpayer, some of my education was clearly paid by taxpayers regardless of why. I said nothing about it being a bail-out.
The rest of your post is nothing but a diatribe IMO.
Well you’d better pre-dial 911, Jefferson, because I agree with BY and you as well.
Fancy meeting you here!
Spin the wheel and make the deal. This problem primarily concerns the participation trophy crowd who took out hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to get a degree from big name university for a degree in under water basket weaving or gender studies. No way should the tax payers be held liable for individuals poor choices to go to a big name school expecting 6 figure salaries upon graduation.
I highly doubt Mr fisherman Bill has a degree.
BA and MS in Mathematics. Didn’t you know that you need at least a master’s to gillnet in PWS? Heheh!
More like a MA in BS. They can have their student loans paid off the same day that they sign off on Mortgage pay offs for those of us who have to pay off student loans.
What is MA in BS??
Bill.
I am also, for the most part, in agreement with you here. IF, you are really going bankrupt, there should be some consideration on the student loan.
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Then again, if you were to get a degree that has some demand in the job market, odds are, you will not need to declare bankruptcy. At least not at the scale the Student Loan defaults seem to indicate.
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Arbitrary bail out on student loans is absolutely not acceptable. You signed for the loan, you took the college classes, pay it back. Pretty simple.
I took out a student loan. I paid it back. Worked two jobs to be able to do it faster. So why should I or anyone else be charge for ANY student’s poor choices. Some lessons are hard! Grow up and live with your choices. I didn’t make them.
Way to go bill I might have hope for you
“Northern Studies” at UAF is THE worthless degree at UAF. They even offer a master’s degree in it. Wokeism, transgenderism, racism, white-phobism all packaged into a heap of nonsense that gives the student negative skills in dealing with the real world. A degree for losers and misfits who somehow think they’ve been educated.
John; I would approve college bailouts as long as the recipient at some time in their life pay back the tax payers if their making bukoo bucks., what that amount would be I’m not sure but lets say if their raking in 500K plus a year, then they should pay it back.
Agreed…if they start doing this, I am applying for a refund. School loans are financial contracts. Historically, they could not be dismissed in a bankruptcy or even death as fard as I know. That particular debt, if not paid, could destroy your life. They should be paid in full by the borrower, but there needs to be some rewrite over the repay and collection. The damage done to a persons credit can prevent them from getting jobs to pay the loan or a place to live. That is absurd.
Should the country as a whole (taxpayers) hold any responsibility for paying off student loans/college costs?
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Short answer: No.
Long Answer:
A college education is supposed to make you a more valuable asset in the job market. It is supposed to make you more desirable to employers and therefore end up with greater pay over your lifetime.
If you choose to pursue a degree with little to no job prospects, I do not see how your degree benefits the country as a whole. In fact, I do not see how your degree benefits you personally.
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How many employers are seeking graduates with degrees in Hyphenated-American studies? (HINT: zero) Yet, there are tons of students pursuing worthless degrees. And, somehow this should be the responsibility of the taxpayer to insulate them from the consequences of their decision? Why?
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Final note.
It is curious how the very same people who think an 18 year old is not mature enough to understand the long term consequences of a student loan agreement, also think that a five year old is mature enough to understand the consequences of changing their gender.
What a crock!
Interesting. Crock.
Why?
Did you actually read what I wrote, or are you just denigrating it because I wrote it?
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Do you think someone who pursues a degree that no employer is willing to pay for should have their debt paid for by the taxpayers?
Your entire post was a diatribe against college degrees you don’t like with a final note that was plain bullchit. And I’ve already gone on the record about taxpayers and these debts. There should be some method to get out from under student loans, just as other debts can be forgiven by bankruptcy.
Note: No subjective horse manure about what studies were involved either. Also, no reason a degree should even be involved-just overwhelming debt.
Bill,
The method to get out from under student loans is called a job, that’s the thing the college degree the loans paid for should provide.
Steve-O, the student loan debt does not require a degree. Granted a degree helps with that potential job but we are talking about whether/not taxpayers should foot some of the bill.
Unlikely that a degree would have anything to do with it-just the debt.
Once again, demonstrating a complete and total lack of reading comprehension skills.
And, I got a bullchit, so that means you have nothing.
Once again, demonstrating a complete and total lack of reading comprehension skills. Head back, and read it again.
And, I got a bullchit, so that means you have nothing.
Then don’t go and sign on for huge debts to go to a party school, and get a degree that is worthless in the working world. Why do all dimbos feel that those who work and pay taxes are obligated to support their lazy lifestyles? I am not working to pay more and more taxes to support those who do not wish to be a productive member of our society. If you want to pay someone’s student loans for them fine, just do not ask those of us who oppose it to pony up for them. I bet you are a pick click giver.
Wow, the stars lost their alignment so quickly. It was a nice moment no matter how brief.
Nobody co-signed for that loan. I sure didn’t. Just think these are the future leaders of industry and government but they can’t do elementary math. Some of them must be from the anchorage school district.
The government was complicate in the fraud. College recruiters told 18 year olds “sign up for this program and we will fill out the paperwork for government loans”. If the government agrees to it, it must be a good thing, right? Meanwhile, the donations. One online company paid Bill Clinton millions to be on their board of directors while Hillary was in the State Department. I think people should pay their loans but the government should forgive interest including interest already paid.
Hell no. I paid both for mine. My wife paid for all 4 of hers. My kids and I paid for theirs.
Yes, it was hard, a lot of sacrifices were made, and none of us got to live the Animal House life. But we got out nearly debt free.
There is zero reason to bail out idiots who got degrees with zero market value. Less reason for people who knowingly went in to hyper crowded fields.
I will support a level of public assistance for skilled trades. We actually need those.
Nobody needs “studies” grads.
I hear you MA. When I was looking at college my folk were clear about choosing classes to make a degree that gets a job and one that will provide enough income to cover not only rent, food and bills but paying off any loans from school-after graduation. My degrees reflect that.
Would love to go to school and chase super interesting things for the sheer joy of curiosity- it I knew if I got an art degree I couldn’t really figure what kind of job I could get with a fine arts degree. So I changed to a different interest that could pay—>education, and then counseling.
What you just described is what nearly 100% of the individuals who have or are paying off their loans are saying. If you pick courses that have a bearing on real world jobs, they will pay off in the long run. But I was also one that had to figure out beforehand just how to pay back all the costs associated with college. I had no scholarships and no rich relatives. Personally I feel that the battle to pay back the money is actually part of the education process.
Paul I think that last one especially in on the money. BIG lesson in the monotony of paying off big important things over time, not getting it free and clear.
Personally as a learned elder now-I believe education would rightly be given to all citizens. No (past taxes) cost. Those not of college calliber would rightly be given training in tech, or whatever is one’s personal nitch toward reasonable income over working life. But that mentality would be hard to gain here in the states lime the European governments do.
I think the move toward tech training has been gaining ground for the last several years. Think ‘Dirty Jobs’ etc. Maybe the push is coming from the bottom up? In some areas, the plumbers and welders can make as much or more that a lot of white collar positions. And my feeling is there is nothing to be ashamed about working a physical job. Not everyone is cut out for white collar jobs either.
I support the idea that everyone needs at least the high school level education (a legit high school education). After that, figure out how to pay for any further education, personally. At one end of the spectrum, if you have your own money, pay for whatever education you like. On the other end, I’d like to see each industry put out grants/scholarships for an education that fits their needs. Individuals interested can compete for the scholarships and the company paying the bill gets to chose the best candidate.
Maureen, free college like in Europe sounds nice, but their attitude is completely different to start with. There is a tiered system of schooling. Some general education tracks end at the 9th grade and students generally go into the trades. Then you have those, who choose to graduate after the 10th grade and also will proceed to certain trade or professional occupations. Only some students with aptitude choose to go on with their general education graduating after completing the 13th grade. Those then get the option to go to college. In the US all go to high school and there are no other choices. The choices in Europe are up to the students and their parents and they do not waste time prepping for a college experience they have no desire to pursue. We first need an adjustment in our rigid attitude of “all prep for college” and become more flexible. That will require a large shift and a release of the rigid grip the teachers unions have on education.
Your points are well taken A T. That’s where I’m saying it would be quite a task to undertake-to do it like Europe.
Truth is, in today’s world, college is unnecessary and overrated.
Yep, get a job in the trades with no loans where after a working apprenticeship you’ve learned your trade, you have no debt since you were paid to learn, and in most if not all cases you are making more than a college educated person who owes tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Added bonus. The tradesman will be the one turning off the water, gas, or electricity because the arts major cannot pay their bills.
Surely you’re joking. If not, your statement clearly reflects the lack of one of the same degrees that you disparage.
If you’re a tradesman, who do you think designs the bridges and buildings you build? Who designs the computers you use every day, the cell phones you use to run your company? Who patches you up when you get hurt on the job and need surgery? Who does the research to develop and design the vehicles you use to get to your job sites? Who develops the medications you need to take you when you fall ill? I could go on forever.
You benefit from an educated society in ways that you don’t even begin to comprehend. There’s a lot more to making society work than hanging sheetrock, running PEX, or laying down shingles.
Please tell me that you’re trolling with your comment, or at least joking. If not, well then, your opinion is breathtakingly stupid.
The ongoing this with you, dog, is your arrogance.
You are so certain of what you think you know (usually incorrectly) you are unable to look at an issue in any way other than myopic.
You’re nowhere as smart as you’d like to believe you are, and you constantly underestimate the people you think beneath you.
But it’s gratifying you illustrated my point so eloquently.
Whidbey,
It would be good if you knew what percentage of college degrees comprise the engineers and medical professionals you speak of.
In the US about 60,000-80,000 bachelor’s degrees in an engineering field are awarded each year.
In the US about 30,000 people graduate from medical school each year.
In the US about 4,500,000 college degrees are handed out each year.
Engineering and medical professionals make up approximately 2-2.5% of all college graduates every year. You don’t need a college degree to be a barista or work at McDonald’s, yet many college educated people find those are the only fields they are capable of being employed in.
The fact is an overwhelming number of people who attend and even graduate from college would be better off entering the work force without putting themselves into debt.
Those are not the ones whining and crying Seattle man. People with those degrees are sought after and become productive members of our society. They earn enough to pay off their debts. Might want to listen to a Dave Ramsey episode and listen into all the callers that buckle down and pay those loans off first, not whine and cry about having to be responsible and give up expensive vacations and lifestyles.
Hey dog, do you realize that many of the people that started the computer and cell phone age never even graduated college? And there are many self taught ‘engineers’ in most fields.
What do the members / veterans of the military who have turned their service into education benefits into a college degree gotta say ? As a veteran myself I say Thank You.
You sign the contract, you pay it off. Maybe it’s a first life lesson. If so, it’s one that is long over due. Why should ANYONE pay off another’s college loans? Yours, mine, there’s, it doesn’t matter.
When you get out of school, go get a job. Did you not think that the loan would come due? Or do like a lot of us and join the military. Got my schooling paid off without cash! All it cost me was a lot of time away from my family and some deployments to countries where people don’t like us.
As a matter of fact, take a list of all these ‘college graduates’ that are squealing about paying back their loans and enlist every one in the military. After a four year hitch, society would get back a much more ‘learned’ citizen and the new civilian would emerge from the military with a paid off loan.
So government should pay for higher education, (and for just some)?
Personally I believe a two year states-based service option, or military service would be good as a requirement before college. EVERYONE’S kids go.
I disagree with the requirement. Short of a genuine emergency I oppose compulsory anything.
I do agree that a higher priority for admission should be given to people who have done some level of service to their community.
I also am a big believer that most people should not be able to start FT college until 20. Exceptions for genuinely gifted scholars, but they are few and far between.
It’s important to remember not everyone is cut out for higher ed, or even wants it.
Ordinarily I abhor comparisons to Europe regarding almost everything. We may have a shared history and traditions, but culturally we are very different. It’s like comparing apples to a red rubber ball.
But there are lessons to be learned from Europe regarding higher education. Caveat: am speaking generally, acknowledging there are always exceptions.
far too many of our kids go to college for the experience. Dorms, sports, Greek life, getting blackout drunk, getting laid.
In Europe most schools have none of this. Students live at home or in apartments, no massive sporting events, few social fraternities in favor of academic ones, and getting blackout drunk/laid is something you do elsewhere.
The absence of these distractions make the focus more on educating than the going to college experience. Makes them cheaper, too.
Going to “Uni”, until recently was always more about actually getting and education than the lifestyle.
Here, it’s about the lifestyle until you nearly get tossed out, pulled out, or wake up into the quad missing a shoe covered in last night’s debauchery one time too many.
Ideally, I’d like to see big gov out of the education business altogether. In a perfect world each industry would provide education benefits for individuals that would work off the costs by working for a company for a specified time. For example: want to be an automotive engineer? Apply for a scholarship with Ford Motor Company. When you graduate, you owe Ford, say, six years of employment.
And I like the idea of service based or military time being used to help pay for college (it was about the only way I was going to afford college) but I’m split in my thinking about making it mandatory, though. It would make for better citizens, for sure, but making Americans do anything mandatorily can be a headache.
‘That’s not the world we’re living in. Our higher education institutions are broken, and we have a federal government trying to force us to pay for their misdeeds.’
No.
ALL of our education institutions are ‘broken’ from pre-school through regular college unto graduate studies.
There is no longer ‘education’, but rather social ‘indoctrination’, as there is no longer the ‘education’ of reading, writing, arithmetic, nor basic critical thinking skills, which is why our various institutions are failing within the education system the very students within said institutions.
Parents should remove their children from ANY so-called institution immediately and let the failure of said institutions to occur as they should be occurred.
Have you thought that perhaps YOU have suffered the indoctrination of your own beliefs?
If they pass this BS, it is incumbent on the taxpayers to refuse to pay their income taxes. The list of taxation without representing the taxpayer has gotten so long that those of us working and paying our taxes are no longer being represented in the decisions being made, whether it is local, state, or national taxes. We have been marginalized and are now regarded as slaves to the system.
Right on.
This type of educational “bashing” is happening all too often, with “indoctrination” of how worthless and awful education is at all levels. Believe what you want, but a well thought out College Education be it a Liberal Arts, or other College Education, Technical/Trades Community College etc is well worth the investment if students can seize the day and can cut the mustard, but the cost need to be affordable.
Then why are so many wanting bailouts? Why are so many new grads unemployable?
Education gets bashed because it needs to be bashed.
……intensified stress of affordability, littered with obstacles to thwart applicants’ aspirations and goals, along with the constant stream of negitive bashing has had a negative effect and is creating an abandonment of a much needed workforce. We can either be problem solvers, bridge builders or dismantlers of any and everything good.
Kamala is that you????
What a word salad! Stress of affordability? Thwarting aspirations? Grow up! Life is hard and stress is part of the deal. Achievement isn’t just showing up, but persevering despite obstacles. THAT makes life worthwhile and fulfilling.
I, in general, agree with your original statement. A college degree can be a path to success and tuition affordability is an issue. However it all depends on the individual and their willingness to make it happen. Too many sit around and whine that they can not succeed because of their debt. Yet they failed to plan out their educational journey and are not willing to do what is necessary to meet their obligations.
Key words “a well thought out College Education” the problem is, most aren’t. Arguably the vast majority, if not all, of college loans are not well thought out.
We Alaskans can set an example! There is very likely no university or college less deserving of taxpayer help that the University of Alaska. They teach remedial courses! Brick and mortar colleges and universities are too numerous for the virtual learning age, and weak one will be first to go. A state university is not a flagship institution for that state unless it is recognized academically in one or more disciplines. UA is recognized only for the huge state subsidy it required, nothing else.
The reason that lenders of student loans can pierce through bankruptcy is that student loans have no security, nothing to seize if the student walks on the obligation. The fact of the matter is that teachers can tell you which student is college material and which is not, and if anyone asked them they could tell you which student, if any, should borrow for higher education . By and large, if the parents don’t have the kid reading well by age 4 the chances of that kid succeeding academically then diminish with each passing year.
In the mid to long term the only thing that can save UA is a return to the military draft and the automatic draft deferment. It would be especially helpful to UA it only a few colleges and university could qualify for the draft deferment as UA is merely the weakest among many weak schools of higher learning.
Maybe they should work harder at keeping their accreditation, cough, cough UAA.
“Should college degrees get bailed out by taxpayers?”
No, and we do end up getting stuck paying their loans off, then those graduates should in turn immediately turn around and pay off all of my business debt…..
Can your business finances allow you to declare bankruptcy?
If you really want to lower the cost of higher education, and make it worthwhile again, it’s actually structurally easy but politically no one will touch it.
Simple steps
-get the government out of the higher education loan market. Let the banks compete and take associated risks.
-get rid of any degree ending in “studies”, and cap the number of people who can be in a program at one time. Nursing schools used to do it, so did med schools.
-Stop remedial coursework at 4 year schools. If an incoming student needs remedial work, Community College.
-End all state lotteries for education.
-End all sports beyond the intramural level. The highest paid state employee in nearly every state is a football coach. Let the NFL and NBA develop a farm system like baseball.
-strangle the textbook scam. Texts can pass the cost of tuition. A common scam is the publisher will make a couple changes in a text then raise the rates like cable does. Then demand schools use the new and “improved” text.
All are very simple and will never be done. Forget the military industrial complex. The biggest scam of all is the education industrial complex.
Banks get in the student loan business, I will take my money out.
That first point is the most important. Allow non government lending entities to determine which students they feel are the safer loan recipients. Just like a normal loan. Maybe the different banks can specialize in student loans for specific programs?
What you suggest here is something entirely different than paying for already completed college debt.
Govt. can always allow for incentives they feel important enough. For example allowing tax credits for certain purchases (e-autos, energy efficient wood stoves, etc.). And local govts. provide enhanced signing bonuses for certain jobs (police).
Alaska provided it’s own loans to students and allowed for a portion to be forgiven is the recipient worked in government for 10 years (I think). This may have been in certain categories but attorneys got this potential perk.
I do like the idea of loan/tax ‘forgiveness’ for taking certain jobs. It provides a built in incentive to train and perform.
Personal opinion here, but if you sign up for a loan, you are responsible for paying it back. But that dovetails into the idea of student loans only from non government entities. If the government throws out loans to everyone, those same people have no issue with a high default rate. But if a local bank makes a student loan, they will do a much deeper investigation into whether the recipient will be willing and able to pay it off after completing the school. In private banking a high default rate will get a loan officer fired. Once again built in incentive to perform.
I don’t object to creating a way to back loans via public service.
Americacore, Teach for America, join the military and serve two hitches with an honorable discharge, things like this. Hell, maybe revisit the Roosevelt era and have them helping repair roads, bridges, dams, ect.
I’m not crazy about it, but it helps them get off the hook while the taxpayers get something besides stuck with the bill.
Nope not just government work. You had to receive a degree, return to Alaska and work to recover the student loan reduction. Why is it you people always think you have to become part of government to receive perks?
Reading critically not your thing?
Apparently not.
Absolutely not. And while they’re at it. Tax the endowments.
Well said Suzanne. Let the free market determine cost of higher “education”. The government at all levels should not be part of it – no subsidies, no loans, no loan guarantees, no Pell grants, no govt support of any kind. Many colleges and universities will fail – this may be a good thing. The era of government sponsored “higher education” for national security reasons ended long ago and the wackos took over. The market will weed out the nonsense.
I was talking with a friend who teaches English at the University level down south.
He’s been saying for about 5 years (and backed it up with data) this is a higher education Armageddon coming within 15 years from now.
His data shows the marked drop off in college eligible people. Three generations of declining birth rates are coming to a head. Not enough bodies to do business as usual.
Factor in two things, the astonishing decline of men in college and the skyrocketing costs, the collapse may well be epic.
Add in the common perception the diploma isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and the hard woke trend in higher education, the few students to be had just won’t be enough.
The industry (and it is an industry) has been putting this off by lowering admissions standards, offering nearly full ride loans, creating a slew of marketplace worthless majors, and importing as many foreign students as possible. The next trick is they are pushing for allowing illegals to attend without question or proven qualifications to suck down the dwindling federal dollars.
It’s a Ponzi scheme which has no choice but to collapse, hard.
Conservative estimates see as many of 30% of all higher education institutions closing in 20 years. More doom and gloom predictions are in the 40% range.
Myself I doubt it’ll happen that hard that fast, but it’s gonna happen.
and bring down the cost…
I know plenty of college educated people who know less than I did in middle school, most of them have student loans. I know a few college educated people who know way more than I ever will about their field of expertise, most of them have paid off their loans or never had them to begin with.
High school kids nowadays can go to college while in high school and graduate high school with an associates degree, I sure wish that were around when I was in high school. I wanted to work when I got out of school, so I did. I also never stopped learning, I’ve just never felt the need to pay someone to make me feel like I was learning.
In many areas higher education is certainly valuable and a benefit to society. But the whole? Not at all.
I know people in Juneau who went to trade school, developed skills needed by SEs workforce, and went into the mines making more than most accountants.
I also know several people here with masters degrees who are working as wait staff, janitors, and general labor because they got unmarketable degrees and have to pay off the debt they incurred getting them.
Higher education needs a top to bottom overhaul.
MRA “we should sing from the hills the benefits while we fix the negatives”, “as opposed to denigrate the whole thing”. Jamie Dimon
Everyone wants to enter the workforce in a higher position than entry level. They think college gives them this. Now we are blessed with high numbers of smart people with nobody to supervise. Where will we find the workforce to do the work? Used to be, you did entry level work to pay your way through college. With free college and forgivable student loans you eliminate the core of most businesses. And now think that putting the cost of your education on the backs of those who chose to enter the workforce without formal secondary education is a fair decision. As well, many of the people educating this new crowd have never been part of the workforce. The results are very evident. A generation of highly educated people who are above work and can barely tie their own shoes. Living in subsidized existence.
The revolutionaries that stole the reins of power will continue with their planned demolition, and they have no intention of ever relinquishing the control that they have gained. Every single divide tactic that they come across will be employed with great effect against us. Unless, or until, we unify against them and they collapse into our midst. They can feel the great potential for that eventuality, their efforts are intensifying, yet the outcome still seems uncertain. It is good to see some occasional unity between opposing viewpoints here in the MRAK comments section.
Bad faith actors run this government and its agencies, intent on destruction. Only unified good faith efforts on all fronts have the potential to bring us out of this.
Terrific repartee going on here! Best read in days people’s!
A student loan commitment is elective; executive action forcing the working population to ‘absorb’ those monetary delinquencies is not elective.
Stand up, get a job, learn a skill, pay your debts. I won’t subsidize your culture.
The world doesn’t owe these College Educated idiots a living, go out and pay your own debts, this is completely ridiculous that this is even being considered. A bunch of parasite politicians giving other peoples money to low life do nothings who feel entitled to anything free they can get. They are thieves of other peoples hard earned money , totally pathetic and wrong!
Interesting discussion. Student loans should be subject to bankruptcy provisions just like most business contracts. Lenders need skin in the game before they loan 80,000 to an 19 year old Art Major. Lemon laws. I paid a ton for a product that did not produce the needed results. Maybe Universities need skin in the game about realistic expectations of earning potential after graduation. Guess we do not worry about all foolish loans the State of Alaska made. No problem with a 20 year old inheritance of 10 million dollars. Sure that will create a work ethic to a doctor or lawyer. Or more likely a trip to the local pot store.
As a single income head of household with three children, I paid off $15K in student loans in the 1980’s. The home we lived in was purchased for $55K. So my question is, if students today get a refund, where’s mine?
Reggie, I agree. Where is my rebate of my college tuition and expenses. After all, the modern-day student loans pay for clothing, automobiles, groceries, apartment rent, marijuana, etc, etc. In my day, the student loans paid for tuition only. We had to work and save for the rest.
The article says, “Only an elitist mind thinks it’s a good idea that the people who went to college should have their debts covered by those who didn’t, through a $400 billion transfer of responsibility.”
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I agree. However, it seems like more of an affront to us who went to college and then worked hard to diligently repay our student loans? In effect, I would be paying for college twice–once for myself and again for the elitists; whereas those who did not go to college would only be straddled once–for the elitists. In either case, the idea is a Marxist abomination. It is not easy to respect our government in 2023.
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