Enough "poor poor pitiful me" from college students
PUBLISHED in the Boulder Daily Camera, 8/15/06
http://dailycamera.com/bdc/letters_to_editor/article/0,1713,BDC_2491_4916920,00.html
re "Students burdened by debt
Federal aid not keeping pace with rising costs"
Boulder Daily Camera, 8/13/06
http://dailycamera.com/bdc/buffzone_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2448_4914329,00.html
To the Editor:
The idea that taxpayers should cough up more of our hard-earned money because a music student “needs” a $30,000 bassoon on top of his student-loan debt would be laughable if the fundamental proposition itself were not so dangerously widely accepted.
Instead of wondering why federal aid has not kept up with college costs, we should be asking two hard questions: First, why are college costs rising so much faster than inflation? (It’s not as if education is made from a barrel of oil, after all.) And second, if student loan debts are consistently “unmanageable”, isn’t the obvious implication that college is overpriced in terms of the additional earning potential it enables (or doesn’t enable) in graduates?
If statistics show that college graduates on average will earn $1 million more over a lifetime than non-graduates, then at least for many the debt is manageable, despite cries for financial pity from students. For those who still won’t earn high wages even with a degree, maybe the real problem is the price of that degree. Maybe a music or English literature degree should cost ¼ of an engineering degree.
In the meantime, I have no interest in government spending more of my money to support the dreams of musicians, environmentalists, or others who might claim a right to our money to further their possibly noble but low-paying choices.
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Yours truly
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08/15/06 @ 11:38:31 am
Two things:
Increasing federal aid increases the number of students who can attend college and increases the amount of money available to spend on college. It shouldn't come as a great surprise that prices would rise. State colleges are still a good buy, especially if a student spends their first couple of years at a community college, and most provide an education comparable to more expensive private colleges. In other words, don't ask for the moon when you're asking for federal educational assistance.
No one owes someone an education. The practical reason for providing federal assistance is to ensure the country has enough people with the knowledge required to keep a technology oriented economy going. The country gets more benefit from an engineer or scientist than from a literature major and perhaps some majors should receive less federal assistance rather than encouraging more people to pursue a low demand major by reducing their cost.
08/15/06 @ 01:01:05 pm
Great points! I have been asking that question for years. Always asking for more, never answering why?
Candidate CD 5 Colorado