As college tuition soars, fairness questions arise

<p>I would far rather my tax money be used to help educate students whose parents are low-income than the children of people I know who bring in a lot of money but spend a good deal of it on pay TV, high-end electronics, and expensive vacations and cars, then dare to complain that they don’t have any money saved for college. (Yes, I really do know people like that. They are usually the ones who complain about how they pay too much in taxes.)</p>

<p>My own view is that we should cut off both educational opportunities for the poor AND welfare. Then all we need to do is make our taxation reflect the “one man, one vote” tradition in this country … every adult pays the exact same amount in tax dollars. (For poor without funds to pay their “equal tax share” we can simply reinstitute debtor prisons, work road gangs, etc.)</p>

<p>This topic highlights the divisions we face in this country. Divisions have always existed in this country but it interesting to note how they have changed. Where before the divisiond were along racial, gender or religious lines, the divisions now are along geographic and economic lines. The debate (war?) between red and blue states as well as the 99%ers and the 1%ers will continue to rage on with nothing getting accomplished in Washington or your state governments.</p>

<p>^ The divisions were along economic lines before those were replaced by divisions along racial, gender, and religious lines. You can thank Pat Buchanan of the Nixon campaign for that. He did good work, as you can see the right began to win much more often after that.</p>

<p>skrlvr - I think everyone agrees that families of modest means have difficulty paying for college. One thing to keep in mind regarding your net price by income level is this: Many kids from families with income 110K are not getting any help from their parents which means at the end of 4 years, they may actually be worse off financially than those under 30K.</p>

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Huh? Every state school has price differentials for in and OOS. For Berkeley, it is $20+ grand more for an OOS compared to an in-state.</p>

<p>A few state schools like the University of Minnesota - Morris do not charge additional tuition to out-of-state students.</p>

<p>My BIL teaches at Concordia Univ, St Paul. He said they dropped tuition this year by $10,000. They decided that since they usually gave the extra $10,000 away in FA…why not drop the price and use it as a marketing tool. Total price this year for tuition+room/board is $27,450.</p>

<p>I wish my kid’s schools would do the same!</p>

<p>Kajon–like you said, marketing tool. Along with dropping the cost, they have dropped how much they give out in aid so the net price to students is the same.</p>

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<p>I wondered why UA has that much money to take in hundreds of NMS on free ride. If my kiddo went there, the 14K would stick to my head. That remind me a rich person recently proposes to rid of the minimum wage.</p>

<p>I know of a student whose parent is a college professor at a private college. That professor has a benefit that pays 1/2 of his college’s tuition to pay for the tuition of his child at any college. The child now has his tuition fully paid for at a state university. So his tuition is being paid for by the student’s parents at the professor’s college. Now apply that further, this tuition at the state college is paying for some other students receiving aid. So ultimately, the private college parents in one state are paying for students at a public college in another state. I am sure if they knew that they would not think that is fair!</p>

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Well, I just moved from Wall Street to Technology in NYC. We are competing for the same candidates as Google, FB, and only recruiting at very top tier schools. As someone who has worked in WS all my life, I am stunt by the starting salary (50% more) and what the company needs to do for benefits to be competitive - fully paid health benefit, 401K matching, food/drinks in the pantry, no dress code, flex hours.</p>

<p>Mattmoosemom–I think it is pretty common knowledge that employees at many colleges have tuition reciprocity with other schools. It’s a benefit of employment at these schools and the jobs are highly sought after as a result. It’s really no different then me buying a TV at Best Buy-ultimately I am paying for someone’s health insurance or vacation time.</p>

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<p>Are NYC tech companies much more school-prestige-conscious than tech companies in other areas? (Google’s list of schools to recruit at reportedly includes far more schools than just the “very top tier schools”.)</p>

<p>Those kids from families making $110k need to make some choices. If their parents don’t have the money to help them, it’s because they’re already spent it, and the kids benefitted from that lifestyle. They don’t have to be worse off, they have to choose their college carefully. And if they took full advantage of that lifestyle, they should be eligible for at least some merit aid.</p>

<p>If their parents spent all the money, and can’t help with college, and the kids floundered in high school, then perhaps they belong in the less expensive options, such as community college. Otherwise they’re likely to continue what they started in HS, and get little benefit from that expensive college education.</p>

<p>^^In NYC the kids from the 110K families live in pretty reduced circumstances. A family of four in NY is just making ends meet at that salary in the outer boroughs. They are not extravagantly shopping for cars and tvs. There are lots of immigrant taxi drivers working 12 hr days, six days a week, and their wives working as sales clerks, or lower level pas making that number. Please do not say they are extravagant and their kids need to make choices of being educated in the profligacy of their parents.</p>

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<p>Uh, actually sooooo not true! As but one example, University of Virginia gets only 7% of its funds from the State of Virginia, down considerably from prior years (source: NYTimes Sunday Supplement). Some argue that UVA ought to just ditch the State and go private – being saddled with a 70% in-state acceptance requirement as the State continues to cut back funding would seem to make no sense.</p>

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<p>Could this be an “East Coast vs West Coast” thing? I too know people at Google who were not from top tier schools.</p>

<p>College should be cheaper for residents. The out-of-state kids are still paying less than they would for a private school. So they are not subsidizing the in-state kids. The in-staters are actually subsidizing the out-of-staters with their tax dollars. </p>

<p>What really ticked me off was when I was at Iowa State, I was given almost all student loans, when I had no parent income so I should have qualified for max fin. aid. While many out of staters were recruited and brought in on full-rides, even less qualified students who had way more money.</p>

<p>The PizzaGirl who has no problem paying high taxes for excellent public education – actually there’s very little correlation between per pupil spending and success rates. Cases in point – DC public schools, Chicago public schools, etc. etc. etc. And I can name lots of schools in China, Russia and India who are teaching a lot of math on much less than 17 thousand dollars a year per student. I do have a problem paying for programs where there is clearly waste, fraud and abuse. (I come from norfolk, VA where they recently discovered a city employee on the payroll who hadn’t shown up for work for SEVENTEEN YEARS! Would you be happy to be funding THAT?)</p>