It seems that everyone in the debate over student debt agrees on one thing: fairness. Of course, what’s fair depends on one’s perspective and, as with everything else these days, political ideology.
There shouldn't be an issue here: borrow money; repay money. No issue. It becomes an issue only when politicians get involved. They love to give away taxpayers' money to try to buy votes. Some students whine that their debt is too high. They made a foolish choice. People do make foolish choices sometimes. However, they won't learn to make good choices if they are not responsible for their bad choices. Colleges certainly do cost far too much. The problem is the easy availability of money. As others have pointed out, colleges will spend as much as they can get. A major part of the problem is the huge amount of government money available. It drives up the cost of college, and perpetuates the vicious circle: college costs too much; the politicians' answer is more money, which further drives up the cost. The solution is to cut back the amount of money available. This would require a political willingness to trust that people can act responsibly if they are required to, coupled with political courage. That, in a nutshell, is the problem.
I have wondered if the problem of student debt would be a non-issue if the students could file bankruptcy like any other debtor. I think the loan application process would look very different. Just a thought.
Especially today going forward, post high school education is a continuing process and not necessarily a defined event that is completed and you move on. Public educational institutions can and should be supplanted by programs instituted by employers, unions and some sort of cooperatives that can be entered into at any point of your life.
And I wish public servants, like the President of the U of M, had a strong incentive package around efficiency and streamling. Costs have to come down. How many layers of management are there between the professor in the classroom or lab and the U’s President? I think we have Deans and Provosts for all manner of things. Just an intuition…..
I think the U of M has done pretty well on admin costs compared to some others , although it is a significant cost issue throughout higher education. A huge challenge for Minnesota will be coming to grips with the number of public campuses and redundant programs. Closures and consolidations at least have to be on the table as schools face the reality of changing demographics
There shouldn't be an issue here: borrow money; repay money. No issue. It becomes an issue only when politicians get involved. They love to give away taxpayers' money to try to buy votes. Some students whine that their debt is too high. They made a foolish choice. People do make foolish choices sometimes. However, they won't learn to make good choices if they are not responsible for their bad choices. Colleges certainly do cost far too much. The problem is the easy availability of money. As others have pointed out, colleges will spend as much as they can get. A major part of the problem is the huge amount of government money available. It drives up the cost of college, and perpetuates the vicious circle: college costs too much; the politicians' answer is more money, which further drives up the cost. The solution is to cut back the amount of money available. This would require a political willingness to trust that people can act responsibly if they are required to, coupled with political courage. That, in a nutshell, is the problem.
I have wondered if the problem of student debt would be a non-issue if the students could file bankruptcy like any other debtor. I think the loan application process would look very different. Just a thought.
Especially today going forward, post high school education is a continuing process and not necessarily a defined event that is completed and you move on. Public educational institutions can and should be supplanted by programs instituted by employers, unions and some sort of cooperatives that can be entered into at any point of your life.
And I wish public servants, like the President of the U of M, had a strong incentive package around efficiency and streamling. Costs have to come down. How many layers of management are there between the professor in the classroom or lab and the U’s President? I think we have Deans and Provosts for all manner of things. Just an intuition…..
I think the U of M has done pretty well on admin costs compared to some others , although it is a significant cost issue throughout higher education. A huge challenge for Minnesota will be coming to grips with the number of public campuses and redundant programs. Closures and consolidations at least have to be on the table as schools face the reality of changing demographics