College costs have been on the rise, there’s no doubt about that. In fact, in the past 30 years, its gone up by 538%, to be exact. An article on The Motley Fool explains why these costs are going up, saying that the problem is something that we all rely on when we go through college: financial aid.
How is something that’s supposed to lower tuition costs causing just the opposite? What happens is that whenever an institution receives state or federal funding, some (or much) of that gets deferred to other programs, like improving the overall look of the campus or something like that. In turn, to maintain the campus, they must raise tuition costs , which in turn requires the government to subsidizes them more money. It’s a vicious cycle, really.
So what can be done to change this? Obama’s plan to grade institutions of higher education based on their performance offers one means of reforming the excessive spending that colleges put into campus amenities. This is done by grading them on the economic output they can create; in other words, they put students in, potential money-makers come out. If students leave crippled with expenses, that institution’s grade is hurt and it’s unlikely they’ll receive funding of any sort.
Another way to do this is to refuse to pay the exorbitant costs and not go to college at all. Wouldn’t this hurt us economically? Not really. What our education system really needs isn’t more money, but instead a really swift kick in the teeth. It may set us back a little, but in the meantime, employers will be just fine with choosing from employees with little experience instead of having to spend the time sifting through hundreds, if not thousands, of applicants with degrees but no experience at all.
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