America’s
student loan debt is in excess of 1 trillion dollars; it is believed this will be our
next huge financial crisis as these loans go into default.
One of the reasons people are having a difficult time
repaying their student debt, is that they can’t find jobs as newly minted
college graduates. See the 10 worst college degrees by Forbes.
Granted the economy is in the doldrums and good jobs are
hard to find. But a college education
was sold to these students by the education industry as their ticket to a good paying job.
Let’s use some outcome based education for a change. If you
are going to let a student burden him/herself with a huge debt in order to
graduate from your school, you should have some skin in the game. Colleges should have to guarantee these loans, instead of laying that debt off onto taxpayers if the student defaults. Perhaps there would be a change in admissions, stricter standards and heavier counseling.
Right now colleges and universities have the best of all
worlds. Many are in receipt of
government funding, many have endowments and almost all are the recipients of
an unending stream of government guaranteed tuition. There is no incentive for them to see if the student loans ever get paid back.
It’s a one way street in the higher education system and
it’s time to make some changes. . These easy government backed student loans
are correlated to rising costs. Colleges have every incentive to
raise costs knowing the loans will be adjusted upward to reflect those costs.
Colleges should have job placement programs for the students
they graduate. There needs to be some
responsibility from the higher education system and some accountability.
Should taxpayers be put on the hook for a college graduate
with a liberal arts degree who can’t find a job? Or if the jobs available with
those degrees are low paying and will never be able to justify the student loan
amount?
Additionally, let’s face it, many of those attending college
aren’t college material and should be learning a trade or craft. Skilled craftsmen make on average far more
than many college graduates. Why aren’t
colleges and universities offering these types of educations?
The country has a problem supplying the manpower needs of
our high tech sector, so much of a problem, that special laws are being created
to allow foreign workers into our country that have the math and engineering
skills necessary to work in this environment.
We should be proactively pushing students to get educations
in the sectors the country desperately has a shortage in, even offering
discount tuition, etc. Perhaps even using a hybrid of the voucher system that the Friedman Foundation is promoting for public school choice and introduce some competition.
If a student wants a degree in ethnic/gender studies, music
appreciation, law and a whole host of liberal arts that don’t necessarily
translate into lucrative careers, then there should be an agreement between the
college and the student over how the tuition gets paid. Let colleges aid the student in finding scholarship help, etc.
We saw the problem that unfulfilled promises academic
institutions made to students when our cities were clogged with Occupy Wall Street.
Many of these young people expressed anger at their inability to find a job, a
good paying job with the liberal arts degrees they possessed. They felt they were lied to by their
education institutions…in a way they were.
There is also growing unrest among students who are seeing
their ever increasing college tuitions rise, while chancellors and educators don’t
take a hit and in fact get raises.
Here is an excerpt from an excellent expose’ by JosephPalermo in the California
State University
system:
“Last year, CSU executives were paid between $240,000 and
$400,000 in salary alone. On top of that, each executive is allotted $12,000
per year as an auto allowance. Campus Presidents and the Chancellor each
receive either state-owned homes or housing allowances of $50,000 or $60,000
per year. Other perks available to executives include special retirement
packages such as lifetime employment as a tenured professor.”
Looking at the above salaries you can see these educators are
insulated from the realities that many graduates face after they leave their institutes
of higher education. Instead of raises,
many of them should be fired. Let’s get some accountability into education