College tuition was reasonable until the government got involved with tuition.

It really boggles the mind. When I went to LSU in 1979, tuition was under $400 per semester. When I started law school in 1982, tuition jumped to over $700 per semester. There is no rational basis for the pace of inflation. Based on other goods and services, tuition should have tripled, maybe quadrupled. What we have today is ridiculous.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
College tuition was reasonable until the government got involved with tuition.

Wasn't the first thing that took effect from Obamacare was for the federal government to take over the student loan program?

Tuition will continue to skyrocket as long as people are lining up to pay/take on debt. That simple.

Several years ago, the local school board began to tell woes of how all of the high schools, and middle schools were all in shambles. From the asbestos that poor little Timmy was breathing, to leaky roofs, no insulation, faulty heating and cooling, etc.

Fortunately for the taxpayer, the school board had a plan. Build a big, new, mega high school and move EVERYONE there. Man, the savings they calculated was AWESOME. (As long as you didn't take into account the millions they were wanting to spend on the new project, and then it costs my grandchildren money to pay for it). They fought the taxpayers, and finally in the cover of darkness, against the will of the majority, they set their plan into motion. And they built a huge school. But, guess what????? They didn't close a single building. Not one. They added jobs. Added buses. Added layers of bureaucrats. Apparently the leaky roofs, asbestos, and all the other convenient for the children excuses just didn't exist.

Then here comes my favorite part. A local police officer died. To be able to host his memorial service, the board offered up the auditorium at no charge. Then, they sent a bill for $3800 for rent, chocked full of all kinds of fees. They stated if the agency wouldn't pay for it, they would sue the widow for the money.

And there is zero accountability still today.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
College tuition was reasonable until the government got involved with tuition.

For sure.

If I had to list what I see as the three biggest reasons for skyrocketing college costs:
1) Government college loan programs
2) Bloated administrations
3) Campuses becoming resorts

$529 / square foot. Around these parts turnkey office space runs about $150-$200 / SF. That price makes me wonder what finish levels and amenities they stuck in there.

quote:

Originally posted by Echtermetzger:
The real cost are the high five and six figure salaries of administrators.

Assistant Directors
Vice Presidents
Assistant to the Vice President
Director of So and So
Associate Vice President
Associate Director
Assistant to the President
Chancellor
Vice-Chancellor
Assistant to the Vice-Chancellor...

I might suggest that the benefits of the college execs are probably more lucrative than the six figure salaries. And you forgot a senior position, the VP of D-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y.

I’m probably an asshole, but I told my oldest daughter I would pay what I could afford if she went to school for a STEM major or teaching degree, or she could borrow money or her own if she wanted some uselsss liberal arts degree.

She ended up paying for most of the 1st year of civil engineering with private scholarships and state promise scholarships.
This year, her sophomore year, they paid her 3500 to go to school.

It’s an in state school with a very good ranking amongst engineering schools nationwide.
They have small class sizes, but none of the frills the big mega colleges have.

They have been absorbed by the mega state university here, and sometime in the next couple years they will shut down and move the program there. It will not be the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
Tuition will continue to skyrocket as long as people are lining up to pay/take on debt. That simple.

Actually, not. Students are only a symptom of the problem. The problem, as with virtually everything plaguing our country, is government. Since government now controls virtually all of 'higher learning', they've developed an incestuous relationship with colleges whereby they continually increase the availability of funding to students and colleges continue to raise their prices. There is zero correlation to markets or economics. If students were required to save for and/or obtain private financing for college, you'd see the cost of college educations decline as colleges sought to cut costs to make their programs more affordable to a larger cross section of potential students.

quote:

Originally posted by justjoe:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
College tuition was reasonable until the government got involved with tuition.

For sure.

If I had to list what I see as the three biggest reasons for skyrocketing college costs:
1) Government college loan programs
2) Bloated administrations
3) Campuses becoming resorts

If you read the story Powersurge posted https://mises.org/wire/don’t-c...llege-cost-education (which I agree with 100%), items (2) and (3) on your list are simply symptoms of the root cause, item (1).

When I started at MSU, tuition/fees were $275 per quarter for 12-18 credits.

With a summer job fighting fires, I was able to put away about $3000 per summer (that was a lot of money back then). Couple that with around $1500 from Pell grants and a $2500 Guaranteed Student Loan (guaranteed by the state and not the feds as I recall), we went to school and lived like kings.

At the most, you were only in debt for around $10K. And, somehow we were still able to get a good education.

Of course that was back in the days when they taught you how to think and not what to think.

The cost nowadays, even in-state, is obscene. But hey, gotta pay for that new football stadium somehow.

All this stuff is not for the students sake, it's for the faculty's comfort, since the students come and go. The faculty must be served.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. Kook:
$529 / square foot. Around these parts turnkey office space runs about $150-$200 / SF. That price makes me wonder what finish levels and amenities they stuck in there.

to steal a line from "Independence Day", you really don't think they're paying a thousand dollars for a toilet seat, do you?

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Several years ago, the local school board began to tell woes of how all of the high schools, and middle schools were all in shambles. From the asbestos that poor little Timmy was breathing, to leaky roofs, no insulation, faulty heating and cooling, etc.

Fortunately for the taxpayer, the school board had a plan. Build a big, new, mega high school and move EVERYONE there. Man, the savings they calculated was AWESOME. (As long as you didn't take into account the millions they were wanting to spend on the new project, and then it costs my grandchildren money to pay for it). They fought the taxpayers, and finally in the cover of darkness, against the will of the majority, they set their plan into motion. And they built a huge school. But, guess what????? They didn't close a single building. Not one. They added jobs. Added buses. Added layers of bureaucrats. Apparently the leaky roofs, asbestos, and all the other convenient for the children excuses just didn't exist.

Then here comes my favorite part. A local police officer died. To be able to host his memorial service, the board offered up the auditorium at no charge. Then, they sent a bill for $3800 for rent, chocked full of all kinds of fees. They stated if the agency wouldn't pay for it, they would sue the widow for the money.

And there is zero accountability still today.

That same school system about the mid 90's wanted to upgrade their technology for administrators, teachers and students. 65 million was the tab to be approved by the taxpayers.

The school board eliminated parent-teacher conferences a few years prior, instead they hosted open houses timed to be just before school elections. These soon evolved into propaganda indoctrination. Enough of the parents including us were blindsided the previous year by teachers lobbying for a tax increase for raises. Enough of the taxpayers and parents felt like we were being held hostage, one meeting the teacher spent all of the time allotted to stump for passage of the proposal. It lost, not even close.

The technology vote again came after the open house event. I spoke to a school board member regarding the proposal. I brought up the part of how fast new technology was outdated and why did we have as a school district spend all this money to purchase technology and hardware that was destined to be outdated within a year or two. And why was leasing not considered.

Board member told me that the administration and the board felt it was better for the district to own instead of lease from a financial standpoint despite ownership being more expensive than leasing. And wait for this, they could recover some of their money while scrapping the outdated equipment when that time came.

That proposal was easily lost, voters saw through that one. So guess what, school board a couple of months later leased equipment, paid from funding they already had. Lot less money too........newspaper brought that up in it's article.

Online college is going to start to spank this type of BS in the years to come.

$3500 for a semester, ebooks included.

The dean at the College near here lives in a home owned by the university worth over 2mil.

quote:

Originally posted by ElKabong:
I’m probably an asshole, but I told my oldest daughter I would pay what I could afford if she went to school for a STEM major or teaching degree, or she could borrow money or her own if she wanted some uselsss liberal arts degree....

Liberal arts degrees are worthless? I don't think you are an a**h***, I think you are realistic. (I know a fellow with a liberal arts degree, it qualified him to be a greeter at Disney).

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
Several years ago, the local school board began to tell woes of how all of the high schools, and middle schools were all in shambles. From the asbestos that poor little Timmy was breathing, to leaky roofs, no insulation, faulty heating and cooling, etc.

Fortunately for the taxpayer, the school board had a plan. Build a big, new, mega high school and move EVERYONE there. Man, the savings they calculated was AWESOME. (As long as you didn't take into account the millions they were wanting to spend on the new project, and then it costs my grandchildren money to pay for it). They fought the taxpayers, and finally in the cover of darkness, against the will of the majority, they set their plan into motion. And they built a huge school. But, guess what????? They didn't close a single building. Not one. They added jobs. Added buses. Added layers of bureaucrats. Apparently the leaky roofs, asbestos, and all the other convenient for the children excuses just didn't exist.

Then here comes my favorite part. A local police officer died. To be able to host his memorial service, the board offered up the auditorium at no charge. Then, they sent a bill for $3800 for rent, chocked full of all kinds of fees. They stated if the agency wouldn't pay for it, they would sue the widow for the money.

And there is zero accountability still today.

You forgot to mention the state law that forbids school districts to forecast population growth past 5 years when taking into account planning and building new schools.
We have a few schools that when they were only 4 years old already had trailers set up as classrooms.

I used to care about the well being of public schools and attended quite a few open forums even though my kid was only 2 at the time.
Now we have 3 and none will be attending public school. It has become a disgrace here.

I’ll never have a Porsche Panamera now. But the boys are worth it.