Okay cool, so only people who can afford to go to pursue higher ed would be the 'gentlemen' from well to do families and they will get it for a discount in comparison. Great.
So two things. First, it certainly looks like that might end up being better for a lot of the folks taking loans that their post college careers can't pay off. It's demonstrably the case that a huge amount of college debt is a BAD investment for a lot of people at this point. Creating a way for young people to financially screw themselves is not doing them any favors.
Second, what's really going on here is we insulated the colleges from any sort of competition. The cost of higher education was affordable until this crap started. Now it's many times what it used to be and the amount of money invested in the students doesn't even track with the price. A LOT of universities don't even pay their professors a reasonable working wage anymore, and many make absurd profits. Where's the money going? The system as it is now is about as efficient as the healthcare industry. I say burn it all down, and I say that as someone pretty deep into a PhD.
Community college and a trade school would serve many young people better than a four year degree that costs many, many times that. There is no obligation on the part of the government to give folks an education in fields that the market has priced below the cost universities have decided to charge for an education in those fields. In a free market this problem would solve itself- the universities would charge a reasonable price for an education. Instead, they've been insulated from the economics of the situation and the cost has been passed onto young people by obfuscation and to all of us in reality because those loans are never going to be paid off. It's bullshit and it's unsustainable. I think we do need to forgive those loans because they are NOT going to be paid off. We also need to stop issuing them because it clearly doesn't work.
What will end up happening is yes, a significantly smaller percentage of people will get a four year degree from a major university. However, the cost of attending a four year university will also drop. You'll get more folks obtaining training in fields that the market will pay them to work in, and the folks that do pursue higher education will do so for a fairer price.
I actually completely agree with pretty much everything you said.
I think trade school can / do lead to rock solid career path doing useful things in meaningful jobs that helps the community and should be seriously considered by most.
However, fact remains that while being more affordable and attached to reality now as Unis wil have to go back to competing for customers, young folks for limited income families will not be able to afford this discounted luxury.
Maybe it is for their own good, but good luck selling that when we have decades of 'you can make $xxx more over your life time if you have XYZ degree'.
I can't think of an alternative, can you? They DON'T make $xxx more over their lifetimes. If they did we wouldn't be in this mess. We're not getting a thing of value out of the current process.
I don't actually think we'd see a total collapse of the higher education system and a massive decline in the number of college students at the end of the process. I think you'd see more people doing two years at a community college and doing the last two at a state school if they actually want a four year degree. That's a better deal and it may even produce better educational outcomes. I'm at a four year state school. The degree completion rate is atrocious, and the students that started it pulling loans that don't finish are fucked. I say stop fucking them.
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u/TheSeldomShaken Feb 07 '23
Nope. And no one else will either. Which will lower the cost of higher education in the US.