FREE COLLEGE FOR EVERYONE PART #2
What are the problems with the student loan problem today? Are colleges benefiting from the student loan program as it is today? Are the students benefiting from the student loan program as it is today? Do the students in college work hard for their degree? Do the professors work hard to support students?
YOU SHOULD NOT GO TO COLLEGE: To be clear, I am strongly in favor of education and certainly education beyond high school, but just after high school not everyone is emotionally and mentally ready for a four year commitment to college. There is nothing wrong with getting a job after high school to allow the maturation process to adulthood. The responsibility that is part of holding a job, paying bills, being responsible to be on time each day will give a REALITY PERSPECTIVE that attending school will never give, if you are not ready. REMEMBER: One-half of the students entering college fail to graduate within six years, which is bad enough, so I will not address the college drop outs.
PROBLEM WITH STUDENT LOANS: Liberals and progressives constantly cry about the need for more money for education. They make statements like the youth is our future and we must invest in our future blah – blah – blah.
WHO BENEFITS FROM THE STUDENT LOAN: Students apply for loans so it is a safe assumption that they benefit most from the student loan. Not true. Go to any college website and you will see construction that has been going on since the 70’s, under construction today and planned in the near future. The construction selling point is that the college you are looking at for your child is on the cutting edge. (Q: could this building frenzy be based on guaranteed federal student loan money)
REMEMBER 1976: 1976 the federal government created a law which made the loans “NON-DISCHARGEABLE” which means the loan is not prosecutable under bankruptcy law and at the same time removed the requirement that a parent or grandparent co-sign the loan. Now the 18 year old student signs for the loan. (Q: Do you think that this 18 year old understands what this all means?) This law has mutated into today’s discussion of free college and college loan debt forgiveness. Well that should make us feel good.
COLLEGES BENEFIT MOST: I think that if you were guaranteed money every year you would build and remodel too. November 1965, President Johnson signed the HIGHER EDUCATION ACT OF 1965. Like all feel good legislation it takes a few years for the reality to become clear and by the 70’s the stream of money to colleges in the form of guaranteed student loans became obvious. Look at the number of colleges that started during this time frame and the correlation of this guaranteed money to college construction.
COLLEGE INEFFICIENCY: A college does not have to run like a business and the majority of colleges do not. Departments negotiate deals separately because the individual departments and the college as a whole do not have to answer to a bottom line. I recommend that colleges negotiate a single contract for the entire college and share between departments. Q: Are tenured professors efficient? I believe that once a professor is tenured they no longer need to produce at a high level because it is near impossible to remove them (THE ULTIMATE COLLEGE SAFE SPACE). Q: Is tenure a good practice for our education system to maintain?
DEPENDENT ON FEDERAL $$ INCREASING BUREAUCRACY: Today colleges are very dependent on federal funding, and to ensure that the flow of federal money continues, colleges have increased the number of college employees that support that effort. These well intentioned college employees are not there to help you, they are there to ensure that the college funding increases and remains steady. Full time college administrators from 1993 to 2007 per 100 students in public universities increased by 39% and during the same time frame the numbers of teachers increased by only 18%.
COLLEGE IS HARD WORK:
STUDENT: If you work 40 hours per week and have two weeks’ vacation you work 2,000 hours per year. Studies have shown that today’s college graduates are less literate than in the past. Studies also show that today’s college senior spends an average of 13 hours per week in study. If you add that to time in class it comes to 1,000 to 1,200 hours each year.
PROFESSOR: Basically there are two types of professors, one is primarily an instructor and the other an instructor slash researcher. (NOTE: I have done some teaching (not at college level) and have spent 2 to 3 time as much on class prep as actual classroom with students.) Some studies claim that professors work 12 to 15 hours per week in the class room. Add to that prep time, meeting with students and grading papers and you can easily come to over 40 hours per week. A professor who devotes their time between classroom and research can easily hit the 50 to 60 hours per week. (NOTE: Colleges have holiday breaks, spring break and of course the summers break). The 9 months while school is in session is intense.
WHAT IS THE ANSWER: 1st – stop forcing 16 year old know-it-alls to remain in high school so that they can cause problems for fellow students and teachers. 2nd – stop pushing everyone to go to college right out of high school. 3rd – steer more kids towards trade schools like welding, mechanics, interior design, hairdresser, plumbing or to become an apprentice etc. 4th – force colleges to be run more like a business to eliminate waste. 5th – eliminate federal involvement (let each state run the colleges) so that the college becomes answerable to the student and not the federal government.
REVAMP STUDENT LOANS: Remove federal government involvement. If money is given or guaranteed it should be in the form of block grants to the state and let each state control the process. Loans to students should be based on the 5C’s. This would help the student to better understand what they are getting into and force the student to meet annual review qualifications ensuring greater success. Review, revamp, and consider repealing the 1976 non-dischargeable debt law.
CONCLUSION: The student and not the college must be the focus. To be clear, the federal government is not the only cause but as the federal government moved in with increasing regulations and guaranteed funds, the student stopped being the customer and the college became the customer. The college does not really focus on the student and their needs, the college focuses on the source of money and that is the federal government. This painful change must occur or college tuition will never stop growing at more than 3 times the cost of living each year.
MOST IMPORTANT IF WE DO NOT CHANGE THIS THE STANDING OF AMERICAN STUDENTS IN THE WORLD WILL CONTINUE TO DECREASE.