Tens of Thousands of US College Students Moving to Europe for Free, Lower Tuition

[cm husker]

I also, as a bit of background, had no college debt due to military service but had grad school ('11 grad) debt of $240k, of which I've paid off $120k in principal and a little more than that in interest. Luckily I recently found a private lender to refi my 7.2% federal loans with.

 

Point being, I know what it's like to be saddled with school debt. So I want to figure out a solution for kids.

 

Admittedly, I landed a good job out of grad school. But I don't think the solution is for me or others to funnel more money to administrators and professors under the guise of helping kids in the future not have debt. Not when I'm still paying $4,000 a month in loan payments and $8,000 per month in state and federal taxes (not even including FICA/payroll taxes.

 

 

The solution is no subsidies. Not total subsidies.

[cornographic]

 

Also worth noting that most poor people today who get into a decent school go for free or nearly for free under today's system.

 

 

Why should we pay for rich kids to go to school?!

That is something that gets forgotten many times in the discussion.

 

Well, I share the concern of "why pay for rich kids", yada yada, so maybe there could be some prorated variation on the theme, in an ideal world. But, we're talking about public schools, for one--alotta rich kids don't go to public schools--and accding to Bernie's plan, Wall St. is paying for it(Tobin tax), not "us", so you don't have to lose any sleep over that.

 

Wall St speculation is ~1 trillion smackers/day, so, even a small tax, say 0.5% per transaction, well, you do the math.....

[cornographic]

Plenty of people come into the US as well. It'd be better if it were easier for them to stay and keep their talents in the US.

 

I promise you college education plus need-based, including private as well as federal grants and loans, is not a drop in the bucket (maybe for actual rich kids). Free education would make an enormous difference to the burdens shouldered by middle class families sending kid(s) to college; not that it's practical or it's the answer, I don't know -- but it shouldn't be diminished.

 

And I'm aware that many people in previous generations worked two jobs while pushing themselves through higher ed. in less expensive days, but it'd probably be a good investment to make it *easier* for people to get educated.

Well, what's also conveniently left out of the conversation, is why have college tuition rates gone up so much? Especially since the big "crash" of '08, Repub governors, in particular, as part of the whole "austerity" deal, have been cutting state budgets to state colleges big time--see Scott Walker, for e.g.--and therefore the schools have had to compensate by raising tuitions big time. And included has been a trend toward "corporatizing" colleges, so they become top heavy with high salaried business admin types, which has added to the inflation.

[cm husker]

His theory on taxing "speculation" is just another way he reveals his fundamental lack of economic understanding.

[cornographic]

Moving to and living in Germany has costs associated too.

 

I'm curious about two things. First, what is the quality of the schools offering free tuition to foreign students relative to other German schools and internationally? Second, what is the real savings for a student in the end?

 

Does Germany pay for advance degrees? Are we now saying that the US should do that too?

 

I'd almost guarantee that from a % standpoint, far more Germans are leaving the to come to the US than vice versa, and that's a signficiant point.

 

 

Finally, I may have overstated it when I used "rich kids" to make a point. But, it's not obvious to me that students who are receiving the benefit of school shouldn't also pay for it. But, what they should pay for is service whose price has not been artificially elevated by bad policy decisions.

A friend of mine from Colombia moved here about 12 years ago to join his dad, then he joined the US Army and ended up in Germany. Married a German woman and has lived there since. All he ever says is that Germany is far more civilized--i,e,, socially conscious--than the USA. I know other folks from Europe that say the same thing about various Euro countries.

[cm husker]

Colombia, I assume is what you meant. And not the university.

 

The EU is one of the most openly racist areas of the world, social conscious aside.

 

Anyway, comparing Germany to the US is like comparing a single state to the whole of the US. They've also pushed back hard on the "socially conscious" bailouts of Southern European bond holders.

[BigRedBuster]

Why should I care if tens of thousands of Americans are going to Europe for college?