The College Fix

Fact one: For years, college tuition has steadily increased at a faster rate than inflation.

Fact two: The rate of students taking out loans from the federal government has increased 511 percent since 1999.

Fact one plus fact two equals: While the federal government has given more and more money to students attending college, those same colleges have continuously increased their tuition rates.

What it all means? The more money the federal government gives students to pay for college, the higher those colleges can raise their tuition rates, because their students now have more money to pay for an education.

An even simpler translation? More money for the institution.

And that’s the sum of it all, spelled out by Sean McCauley, an Arizona State University student, in an opinion piece published this week in the State Press campus newspaper.

But wait, it gets worse.

“Students are obtaining federal loans, graduating in their respective fields, and then: nothing,” McCauley writes. “Our economy, as you know, is abysmal. Underemployment is on the rise. Say hello to record high loan defaults, America.”

He goes on to note that:

Many Americans might not understand this, but our government has no money. None. In fact, we’re in debt. We have no money to pay for entitlements, student loans, death stars, rovers on Mars and anything else you’d like to insert here. No money whatsoever.

… Inflation combined with severe national unemployment and an ever-rising national debt are far greater threats to the liberty and prosperity of this nation then a slight federal decrease in student loan money. As demonstrated above, this won’t make college more affordable for the masses in the long run.

Voters have once again been bamboozled into electing politicians who promise them an easier path to higher education, and thus they unknowingly contribute to the universal cost increase that has constructed the higher education bubble here in America. And it keeps growing.

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