Of all the crises that people claim will lead to the downfall of America's prominence- rising national debt, widening gap between rich and poor, lack of manufacturing, illegal immigration- there's one that is almost never talked about, one that, I believe is just as plausible to cause our downfall than any other. That is the cost of higher education.
While recently completing my online Student Loan Exit Interview, I was asked to type into a repayment calculator my overall debt, my interest rate and the period in which I plan to pay it all off. After doing some sort of calculation of repayment and adding a percentage for discretionary income, etc. the calculator told me that if I want to pay off my undergrad and law school debt in 20 years, I'll need to make just under $219,000 a year. I'm sorry? What? Oh. Sure. That's not gonna be a problem at all.
Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune ran a story regarding the rising cost of law school and the lack of jobs in the market. Another article, from CNN, describes American students who feel that fleeing the country to avoid their lenders is the only option. What kind of investment in our future is that? And the recent law regarding student loan repayment is woefully inadequate at fixing the problem.
While recently completing my online Student Loan Exit Interview, I was asked to type into a repayment calculator my overall debt, my interest rate and the period in which I plan to pay it all off. After doing some sort of calculation of repayment and adding a percentage for discretionary income, etc. the calculator told me that if I want to pay off my undergrad and law school debt in 20 years, I'll need to make just under $219,000 a year. I'm sorry? What? Oh. Sure. That's not gonna be a problem at all.
Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune ran a story regarding the rising cost of law school and the lack of jobs in the market. Another article, from CNN, describes American students who feel that fleeing the country to avoid their lenders is the only option. What kind of investment in our future is that? And the recent law regarding student loan repayment is woefully inadequate at fixing the problem.
While visiting a friend in France a couple years ago, he told me he was finishing his degree at his local university in Marseille at a cost of roughly €300 a year. Sure, I know the French pay taxes at much higher a rate than we do, but €300 a year! That's about the cost of books for some U.S. students per semester. The consequence, one would assume, in the near future, will be that prospective undergraduate and especially graduate students in the U.S. will do a cost/benefit analysis and realize that it's no longer financially advisable to continue on even toward a degree once thought to be top-notch. The value no longer outweighs the cost.
What will it mean if the U.S. continues to allow their students to be saddled with debt or not to go to college at all? If rates stay where they are for other countries (France isn't the only one), it will mean citizens of those countries will be more and more educated with less and less encumbering them as U.S. students try to compete for the same jobs in a globalized market. It will mean fewer and fewer U.S. citizens are qualified to even do the jobs here and foreign-born and -educated professionals will be running our companies and leading our innovation. It's a dangerous public policy to continue to allow the future generations of our country to be tripped right out of the starting blocks by having to pay back $50, 60, 0r even 175,000 just to go to school. It's something that, if we don't rethink right away, is going to lead to serious problems.
What will it mean if the U.S. continues to allow their students to be saddled with debt or not to go to college at all? If rates stay where they are for other countries (France isn't the only one), it will mean citizens of those countries will be more and more educated with less and less encumbering them as U.S. students try to compete for the same jobs in a globalized market. It will mean fewer and fewer U.S. citizens are qualified to even do the jobs here and foreign-born and -educated professionals will be running our companies and leading our innovation. It's a dangerous public policy to continue to allow the future generations of our country to be tripped right out of the starting blocks by having to pay back $50, 60, 0r even 175,000 just to go to school. It's something that, if we don't rethink right away, is going to lead to serious problems.
2 comments:
Timmy,
Thanks for talking about it. With the work I do, it is an issue near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, students are saddling themselves with enormous debt. I'm doing my piece to help them make economically sound decisions--but higher ed makes it tough! Thanks for making sure people remember how important this is!
It's getting to the point, now, where getting an upper-level degree is no longer an obvious decision (in a cost/benefit analysis). I wonder if we'll see a backlash of admissions falling in the next ten years.
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