College education: tell states to do their share

[zoogs]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/08/27/american-association--state-colleges-and-universities-editorials-debates/32431831/?vh=5d6c6d9d3c7abfd92244521d56c4f3a81ebb23fa&ts=1440735526

 

Two passages stick out:

 

For the past three decades, American families have filled the chasm between ever-escalating college costs and stagnating wages with educational debt.

Lets hope these [proposed solutions] transcend platitudes about innovation, technology, income-share agreements or more reliance on for-profit diploma mills.

[cornographic]

Well, they've spent the last 8 yrs or so--post bankster bailout--cutting state funding for everything public and that includes education(Scott Walker, worst offender), so the schools have to cut costs and raise prices. Colleges are becoming increasingly corporatized and most new professors are hired as "adjuncts" at low pay.

 

Back in the 70s, all CA state colleges were tuition free, same with the SUNY system, so it has been shown to work. Just has to be funded. There's this thing called the "Tobin Tax" which is a small tax on daily stock/trade speculation, which amounts to ~ 1 trillion dollars per day globally out of Wall St. Tax that 1-2%, well, you do the math. Bernie wants to apply the Tobin Tax or his variation thereof to make state college tuition free. Hillary is also proposing a similar tax. Pretty simple, really.

[ZRod]

Another good read about tuition and education as an investment in the future, not a quick budget cut. It also touches on disproportionate aid with those that don't necessarily need it at elite schools receiving more than those who do.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/is-college-tuition-too-high.html?WT.nav=top-news&action=click&module=second-column-region&pgtype=Homepage&region=top-news

To understand the feeling of crisis that many see in higher education right now, its useful to start with some figures from 40 years ago...

 

A lot has changed since then. Median family income has fallen to about $52,000, while median home prices have increased by about two-thirds. (Car prices have remained steady.) But the real outlier is higher education. Tuition at a private university is now roughly three times as expensive as it was in 1974, costing an average of $31,000 a year; public tuition, at $9,000, has risen by nearly four times. This is a painful bill for all but the very richest. For the average American household that doesnt receive a lot of financial aid, higher education is simply out of reach.