<p>I think we’re getting OT and I’d like to hear ideas on the “what can we do about it” side. I think everyone feels there’s not much that can be done individually - even if we choose to “shop elsewhere”, even public school fees are getting quite high in some states and pricing families out of the college market. "</p>
<p>I would suggest, that for all the whining in CC about the cost of 4 year colleges, and the situation 4 year grads with lots of debt find themselves in, bigger problems are students who spend lots of money at a 4 year college, public or private, and who do not graduate. I would suggest more analysis into why they don’t - academic reasons, financial, or personal - and how they can either be helped to finish, or steered in a different direction earlier, would be most helpful. </p>
<p>At the federal level, the best steps are to work on macroeconomic stabilization. A dip of the size of the current recession is inevitably going to cause severe pain, esp to sectors that more or less naturally involve debt financing. </p>
<p>If we truely beleive that higher education benefits the society, not just the student and their family, we should subsidize it. Its not clear to me that subsidies at the state level are optimal - it gives us a crazy quilt pattern of instate and outstate enrollments, as states try to avoid subsidizing out of staters (though of course many instate grads will take their skills and apply them elsewhere) schools try to balance student bodies, etc, etc. Federalizing things is a hot button right now though, and CC seems much fonder of State U’s than of broader higher ed subsidies funneled through students. </p>
<p>To the extent that higher education benefits the student mainly, the arguments for subsidies are less clear. To the extent good higher ed is simply a luxury, well there are lots of things poor and moderate income people cannot afford. If we don’t like THAT inequality, well lets just redistribute income and call it a day. </p>
<p>To the extent that we see higher ed as a path to social mobility, well maybe we don’t want it so limited. OTOH I think we see that there many obstacles, esp in the early childhood environment, that hold back the poor much more than State U tuitions. OTOH its possible we are more concerned with the mobility prospects of the lower middle class than we are of the poorest. Philosophers may disagree, but how many votes do they cast? </p>
<p>Obviously if we can reduce the cost of attendance, overall, that would help, however it is financed. One question I wonder about - is PhD education optimal. I have heard stories of Phds in the liberal arts spending incredible periods of years refining their dissertations. That has to impact the equilibrium salaries for liberal arts professors, a key driver of instructions costs. I personally am skeptical of the use of tech to make higher student faculty ratios more acceptable, but who knows. </p>
<p>Improved connections between universities and the work place would make the massive debt loads less frightening. Whether via Co-ops, internships, or just improved graduation employment prospects. My impression is that some progress has been made in that area - certainly all the schools I saw on college tours seemed much more savvy about that than universities did when I attended. </p>
<p>Is that a start for a discussion of solutions?</p>