Pumping More Air Into Higher Ed Bubble

[Annie]

When I heard the proposal highlights, I thought I was getting something wrong. Emphasis I heard was on 'rating schools,' something pretty insane to try beyond what US News already does-and school have cheated on their answers!

Way back when, the only 'liberal arts' majors were those whose parents could foot the bill, many were women who were in college literally to get MRS. and men that were either going for post grad degrees in fields like teaching, law, even medicine.

Those who were going to college on their own or with scholarships tended to migrate to accounting, sciences, etc. Pretty much the same advice now being given today. The basic tenets behind 'NCLB' or 'Core' is that all children should go to college. This is not only practically erroneous, but economically too.

I really thought I got the part about 'payback' wrong, but looks like not:

Graham: Prez out to inflate college tab | Boston Herald

Graham: Prez out to inflate college tab
Wednesday, August 28, 2013

By:
Michael Graham

What was the dumbest idea of the summer of 2013: Ignoring previous Syrian chemical attacks? The
 Massachusetts tech tax? Letting Miley Cyrus pick out her own clothes?

How about this one:

Telling college kids that if they spend six years running up a student loan tab getting an unmarketable diploma, they’ll only have to pay back a fraction of what they borrowed. In fact, the less valuable their degree and the more money they borrow — the more they win!

And the more we taxpayers have to pay.

I know what you’re thinking: An idea that bad can only come from Washington, D.C.

So let me quote from the White House fact sheet on President Obama’s plans to make college “more affordable”:

“The president has proposed allowing all student borrowers to cap their federal student loan payments at 10 percent of their monthly [discretionary] income ... and forgives any remaining debt after 20 years of payments.”

So if Susy Science majors in a challenging STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) and gets a good-paying job, she’d be on the hook for her entire student loan bill. Because she did the right thing.

But if Paulie Pompous parties his way to a degree in liberal arts before starting his job in “currency exchange and comestible retailing” (a.k.a. “Want fries with that?”), he’d end up paying back just a fraction of his loans.

Obviously, giving away more money to encourage more mediocre students to create more demand for space on campus isn’t going to drive costs down. Even someone as unfamiliar with basic economics as Obama (hello, “stimulus?”) should be able to grasp “supply and demand.”

Why such a dumb idea? Because politicians’ parents don’t want to face the real problem: Too many kids are going to college.

“Thirty-percent of the adult population has college degrees. The Department of Labor tells us that only 20 percent or so of jobs require college degrees. We have 115,520 janitors in the United States with bachelor’s degrees or more. Why are we encouraging more kids to go to college?”

That question comes from professor Richard Vedder, author of “Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much.”

...