One of the biggest lies pushed by Republicans? The government student loan program is making tuition's skyrocket. That's simply not true. As college funding gets cut by the enemies of public education, the Republicans, tuition rises to make up for the losses.
For fun, here's a recent video clip of Dumb Ron Johnson spinning that old talking point like it made any sense:
WSJ: He also criticized federal spending on higher education, saying it has caused tuition to increase well above the rate of inflation.Taking the government out of the student loan program would mean higher interest rates and wonderfully large bank profits. Ya think Johnson knew that?
“We have poured money into higher education. … All of our good intentions trying to make college more accessible, we’ve made it less accessible because we’ve made it so much more unaffordable,” he said.
In a Urban Milwaukee article by Bruce Murphy, Millennials are moving into cities partly because they can't afford houses or cars due to high student loan debt.
Murphy details the reason for the high cost of tuition; Republican defunding of our public universities:
Young people raised in the suburbs seem to find cities far more interesting places to live. But another factor that may make cities more attractive for young people is the rising level of student debt. For decades, state governments have been decreasing support of public universities, forcing them to jack up tuition. Since 1978, as a story in Bloomberg reported, the cost of college tuition has risen 12-fold — by 1,120 percent!
The result has been a soaring increase in student loans and resulting student debt. The average 2014 graduate holding student loans owes $33,000, the Wall Street Journal has reported, up from around $31,000 in 2013 and way up from $10,000 for the 1993 graduating class.
Adding difficulty is that many graduates aren’t getting the kind of high paying jobs needed to handle this crushing debt. An article on PolicyMic.com points out that between 2005 and 2012, the average student loan debt jumped 35 percent, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary dropped 2.2 percent.
In actual reality however, if the federal government didn't backstop the loans to begin with, colleges and universities would have to compete for students with lower tuition costs, scholarships, and grants, instead of just turn them into young adult daycare centers with bigger pools, athletic centers, and unacademic amenities that can all be put on the credit card. I know my college really needed a new football stadium.
ReplyDeleteIf you are considering college with attached student loan debt, consider an apprenticeship, job, small business, or world travel instead. The experiences are more valuable and provide more useful skills than a party every night with kegs, drugs and sex.
The unaffordable debt is not worth it.
So you'd recommend that higher education be the equivalent of "cheap Chinese crap." Interesting, but I demand a higher standard for our future.
Delete2nd-take a look at what tech school grads are making in the 2010s vs college grads, and then tell me if your theory holds up. If you tie this in with higher unionization and wages in the trades, then we'll discuss. But I don't think that's what you or (mo)Ron Johnson want
Any hardship Mr. Johnson has had in the past, he insists on attaching to my children. Any benefit he has received in the present is horded from my children. Any future for him as my senator is non-existent.
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