New proposals are showing up everywhere to stop the increase in college tuition and to minimize college debt. This is an interesting problem often with solutions that only cause bigger problems. In most states, college tuition is getting out of control and it's insane at private schools. Now many government officials, from both parties, want to stop the increase of tuition. The idea is simple: If tuition bills stop rising, college debt will stop rising. Unfortunately, this is not the true, for many reasons.
First, lets agree that college tuition is getting pretty out of control for most public schools and almost all private colleges and universities (Note: this is not the case for public colleges and universities in Florida, where I went to school) . I will talk about tuition issues in a moment. But, a big reason students must take out large loans, is because of living expenses, not just tuition. If someone wants to attend a college, they have to get a place to stay, have transportation, buy clothes, food, etc. Many schools now require mandatory health insurance and computers. I am not suggesting any of these things are bad, or not needed, but that adds a lot to the total cost of college. For me, it was a little over half of my loan when I went to law school. Many places, this isn't the case, but it still can reach $15,000 to $20,000 a year easily. Some may say that students should live in college housing, yet many colleges do not have enough housing and when you are a graduate student, do you want to live among freshman? So, even if the political pigs can some how stop the rise of tuition (or erase it entirely), there are these costs that will continue to rise every single year. Loans will still be needed.
Now, to the tuition argument. Under some plans by some very intelligent political pigs, there will be pressure on colleges and universities to either stop raising tuition or help pay for a larger percentage of the tuition. An idea is to force colleges and universities with large endowments to pay a mandatory percentage of their endowments to lower tuition. I am opposed to this, because colleges and universities are not in the business of making profits to pay shareholders. These endowments are to continue upgrading facilities, pay for great faculty and have up to date technology. While I do believe endowments should be used to help students who cannot afford tuition, they should not be used to help subsidize everyone. Remember, if you don't like the cost of Harvard, don't go there. There are plenty of great schools academically, that cost a fraction of Harvard. Additionally, targeting schools with big endowments will only affect a small percentage of colleges and universities. These tend to be the more selective institutions. This does not account for the vast majority of schools. So, how will they pay for need services with less income? Remember, while it seems colleges and universities live in a bubble, they still are affected by price increases, inflation, gas hikes, etc. Many must increase their tuition just to keep up with rising costs. Private schools recieve little to no funding from a state, while state schools increasingly must rely on tuition and endowments, rather than state money, because legislatures don't want to invest tax dollars in education.
My point is that fixing tuition prices will not solve the college debt problem. It will only hurt the academic institutions, creating a worse learning environment for the students, and still forcing students to incur a lot of loans at not so great interest rates.
So, how do we solve the college debt problem? Two possible ways: 1. Government can raise taxes significantly so every man, woman and child can attend public universities and colleges for free, leaving the wealthy who can pay more to attend private schools; or 2. Government can increase the maximum it will loan to college students, and lower the interest rates on such loans.
Number 2 is the best option. Government, without influencing the private market as much, and keeping taxes down, can easily provide more loans at lower interest rates. Wouldn't you rather your tax dollars being invested in the future of America, with a return small monetary return, rather than sending those same dollars to another country for wars and infrastructure? While students will still fall into debt, it will help them avoid private loans which are far more expensive, and the lower interest rates will help to keep payments down over the 30 years of the loan. This alternative is much more managable for the student, and keeps schools out of the red. Remember, government education loans cannot be erased simply by filing bankruptcy. They follow you to the grave.
If we lived in a perfect world, no one would have to work and everything would be free. Since we don't, this is the best way to solve the college debt problem. This allows students to choose their schools freely, allows the schools to raise money and pay for items they deem necessary, and prevent the government from invading even more into the private market and our every day lives. Why the political pigs don't go for this, I am not sure. Remember, Hillary wants to give every new born $5,000 for college. In 18 years, do you think $5,000 would even cover 4 weeks of college tuition? Lets fix the system while not increasing taxes and burdening our nation's schools.
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