Can we talk about retirement?

Larry$ said:
Why has the cost of college skyrocketed? Way faster than inflation. I paid for my kids college. In 1970 I was getting $90/month on the GI bill. Working 25-30 hours a week Made it easy to survive (living in a dump not drinking too much beer.)
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Well, lets take my home state of Wisconsin as an example. In 1974 about 44% of the University's funding came from the State. This past year it was 16%. Approximately 10 or so years ago, the total financial encumbrance on a student was roughly 50%. About 4 years ago, when I went back to college, the tuition cost encumbrance on the student had risen to over 71%.
And you are correct, that costs have skyrocketed way more than inflation. But, it isn't so much as it is costs as it is funding.
For every dollar spent in our University system, 7 dollars is returned to that State in increased revenue due to higher paying jobs and new business. For some reason, that fact is completely lost on most people and the State government, especially when you have a former governor that gutted the funding just because he didn't like education.

Edit: Nothing will change until this country figures out that an education is an investment in our future, not a cost.
 
7milesup said:
Well, lets take my home state of Wisconsin as an example. In 1974 about 44% of the University's funding came from the State. This past year it was 16%. Approximately 10 or so years ago, the total financial encumbrance on a student was roughly 50%. About 4 years ago, when I went back to college, the tuition cost encumbrance on the student had risen to over 71%.
And you are correct, that costs have skyrocketed way more than inflation. But, it isn't so much as it is costs as it is funding.
For every dollar spent in our University system, 7 dollars is returned to that State in increased revenue due to higher paying jobs and new business. For some reason, that fact is completely lost on most people and the State government, especially when you have a former governor that gutted the funding just because he didn't like education.

Edit: Nothing will change until this country figures out that an education is an investment in our future, not a cost.
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College was practically free (tuition was free, but there were some administrative costs allowed for related services) in California until the late 1960s when then Governor Reagan put an end to that.
California still has some of the lowest public college fees in the US but it is far from free. In the late 1980s when I graduated high school community college only cost me $3.00 / quarter unit. By the time I had completed two AS degrees in 1994 costs had risen to $15 / semester unit. Today a California community college costs $46 / semester unit a 300% increase over 26 years, well above inflation. If it stayed with the rate of inflation that $15 / unit tuition would only be $26 / unit today.

I've discovered from talking with those outside of California looking at taking classes at a community college $46 / unit is still a bargain compared to most.

My understanding for the causes tend to be cynical and political, so I will just leave it at that.
 
I can tell everyone exactly why the cost of college went up. I used to be a college instructor and a department head (Computer Science).

There has been a social struggle with the concept of "underprivileged students" attending higher tier schools. Many in the Government who were "socially active" felt it was unfair for little Johnny (who had a C average) not being able to attend the college of his choice. We have seen colleges change they scale for admissions as a result. We have also seen the government ratchet UP how much they will allow your Government Student Loan to climb. Many (most) colleges immediately raised their tuition costs EVERY time the student loan cap was increased. If you map the increase in the Cap of student loans the past two decades you will see the underlying mechanism. You might argue that "it is not as simple as that"; **it is**. Every time the loan cap goes up, the nation-wide average increases in lock step.

Most colleges would have to close their doors if they they didn't have students coming in on Government Student Loans (GSL). So many of them are entirely dependent upon student debt to exist. Students attending on loans makes up the bulk of students in many colleges. If the GSL limits did not grow the next 5 years, you would see tuition costs flatten overnight. It IS as simple as that. And yes, the school I taught at did raise tuition EVERY time the GSL limit went up, as did all the other colleges in the region. We did not raise the tuition because we were "broke"... but we did plan expansions, new marble floors, etc... all off the fat of the increase in GSLs.
 
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There was a recent article here about the fact that the # of administrators has gone up 50% in the last XXX years while the student population went up aby about 20%. Turns out the same has happened in the local school system. There are more administrators than teachers.
There is a major problem with college education when so many kids get degrees in things that are pretty much like underwater basket weaving.

Too many kids are ill prepared academically. Colleges waste time and resources on low level classes that are just a repeat of what should have been learned in high school. When I was in high school my parents moved to a rural district. The school sent people to my house to make sure I was going to attend the little town school. They needed a 5th male so they could have a basket ball team. Because I had started in the city school I was allowed to continue there. Just had to drive into town. City school had college credit classes in Chemistry, Physics, Biology and math with teachers dedicated to each subject. The little town school had 3 teachers for 9th through 12th grade! They might have been good teachers but I'll bet they weren't qualified in all the subjects they had to teach. There were no labs, no advanced math classes. They did have a garage used for working on a car and doing some welding. The next year the state pulled their accreditation because they lacked a library among other things. Kids from there were at a huge disadvantage if they went on to a university. There has been a lot of consolidation since then as the state has tightened the requirements. But it has been fought tooth and nail by many small districts. Beginning, not end of rant!
 
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My son(step) was a tutor for his own freshman engineering class in CAD. The other kids didn't know how to do it yet.
 
It can get worst! A good friend ended up actually teaching the stats class as the professor was just horrible! My buddy had originally been taught 30 years before by the guy who had written the book on stats. He was back in uni for a final teaching credit for the bucket list leftovers from back in the day.
Pierre
 
I feel like leaving TONIGHT ! :bang head:
Every GD time it rains , we have pellet problems , and it's pouring here .
 
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