Three Proposals to Lower College Costs
& Promote Responsibility For Student Debts
by James S. Soviero
College tuitions are sky high. Easy money loaned to eager undergraduates has allowed universities to raise the price of instruction to unheard levels. Over many years, colleges have raised costs at about six times the inflation rate. Tuition and fees have increased by 1,200% since 1980.
It’s way past time to propose common sense legislation requiring that colleges who want to continue receiving federal money enact three simple policies.
The actions should be designed to 1) honestly expose the financial risks related to student loans, 2) lowering tuitions, and 3) vastly improve graduates’ chances of getting good jobs.
First- As part of any Truth in Lending process, schools, along with the lenders, borrowers, and their families, must be made aware of the student’s credit score.
Institutions that accept dollars from loans given to applicants whose FICO is under 600 will be responsible for picking up the tab if those notes go bad.
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Second- All courses taught by graduate students should be provided at greatly reduced prices or without charge. Given costs per credit, enrollees should have a minimum expectation of being taught by a professor.
What’s the educational rationale behind having someone a couple of years older than the coeds giving lectures? Universities that don’t want to put PhDs in front of classes should discount the courses they’re not teaching.
Third- When picking a major, every undergrad must be given a full-time employment rate and average salary in their chosen field. This would be done during mandated, recorded meetings with the department head. Discussions must include the percentage of alumni from a specific program finding work directly traceable to that major and how long it took them to get that position.
If undergraduates are not properly counseled and unable to find work, the institution becomes liable for the refund of all monies related to courses taken in their focused area of study.
We need to put an end to 19 and 20-year-olds being steered to useless majors that benefit a specific “woke” school of study much more than the young adults striving for financially successful, rewarding careers.
For decades, colleges and universities have been getting billions of nonrefundable dollars upfront without any accountability for what they’re producing. That’s like handing a contractor the entire cost of a house to be built before he’s even cleared the land.
This madness has to stop. Make “institutions of higher learning” have genuine skin in the game, or take away their ridiculously generous, taxpayer-funded, government teat.
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