What has risen 400% in 25 years? Not housing prices in San Francisco, but that’s an excellent guess. Nope, it’s college tuition. That one-liner factoid takes me out at the knees and makes me want to hurl.

Phenomenal amounts of money are spent, borrowed, and paid back over lifetimes for higher education. At some point, one hopes, the college students will become educated enough to figure out when the price of education is just too damned much.

Since that hasn’t happened yet, two professors were interviewed on NPR recently so they could explain WHY college costs so much. It turns out that any and all tuition payers (students, parents) are at the sticky bottom of any given school’s list of people to impress or keep happy. The violent rage I’m feeling makes me warm inside.

Economist Richard Vedder of Ohio University and Stephen Trachtenberg of George Washington University tell NPR host Neal Conan what in the hell is going on with college costs.

You can read listen to the story (30 min.) or you can read the transcript in its entirety here.

Excerpt from the transcript:

CONAN: I wanted to ask, you wrote an op-ed for CNN.com, “Why Does College Cost So Much,” you argued essentially that colleges have absolutely no incentive to reduce costs.

VEDDER: That’s right. Now, there are a few exceptions to that. The for-profit higher education sector is certainly a clear exception, but by and large, most colleges do not get rewards. The presidents of the universities, the senior officials, the key faculty do not get rewarded by being efficient, by teaching more students for the same amount of money or whatever, by using buildings efficiently, six, seven days a week, et cetera. There’s no incentive in that for them.
So there’s no great compulsion to reduce costs, and yet spending more money often has rewards. It can help improve your rankings in the magazine rankings that go on by magazines like US News or Forbes. And it is actually beneficial to colleges, or at least it’s perceived to be beneficial to colleges, to spend more money: nicer facilities for students so you attract more students, better students, whatever, lower teaching loads for faculty so that they’re happy and content and not likely to cause a lot of problems.
So the job of a university president is to raise a lot of money, tons of money, and distribute it, and not too much attention is placed on lowering the cost to the consumer.

CONAN: In fact you argue that the consumer, the student and then the student’s parents, but they come last in a list that includes, you mentioned the faculty, key faculty members are bribed with lower teaching loads. You mentioned alumni, who are in a sense are bribed to make donations to the school through successful sports programs and other things like that, and trustees.

VEDDER: Yes, I think that’s right. Remember, colleges and universities don’t have the profit motive that compels people in the traditional private sector to cut costs, be efficient, try to get more bang for the buck, as it were. So that is sort of lacking. It’s a nonprofit sector, and there’s a lot of third-party payments, that is government money and also private, philanthropic money, that comes into universities that reduces the need to depend utterly, solely on the consumer to foot the bills, to pay the freight, as it were.

Related Posts:

How To Avoid Graduating College Summa Cum Debt
Watching America’s Higher Education Creams Go Down In Flames
College Tuition: Save Or Borrow?
Ways To Kick The Ass Of Student Loan Debt
International Students Bring $18.8 Billion To U.S. Economy
I Live In A Van Down By Duke University
College Or Gambling?
The Cost of College and the Three-Year Degree Option
Streamlined and Fuel-Efficient Three-Year Degrees
Economy Makes Being an RA Seem Like a Good Idea
Increased Tuition Increases Some More

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: new Stanford University library)

The unfortunate phenomenon of elementary-aged girls becoming interested in STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) subjects, going off to college intending to major in and then pursue a career in one of those fields, and ultimately veering off somewhat sharply into less science-and-math rich majors and careers is common.

Fortunately, it has not gone unnoticed by the chicks who have gone on to work in their dream STEM fields, and several entities have started working to foster girls’ education and career paths in STEM subjects.

Michelle Obama, not a STEM girl herself (what with being a lawyer and all), is all for supporting girls in math and science and gave a little talk about it recently. My favorite bits from the transcript:

And if we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the world, then we have to open doors to everyone. We can’t afford to leave anyone out. We need all hands on deck. And that means clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

And it starts with lighting the spark for science and math in elementary school and grade school. We talk about this all the time. I know for me, I’m a lawyer because I was bad at these subjects. (Laughter.) All lawyers in the room, you know it’s true. We can’t add and subtract, so we argue. (Laughter.)

And so encouraging girls early not to lose heart in those fields, and encouraging them through high school is important. But it also means making sure that these young women can keep pursuing their dreams in college and beyond.

Further Reading:

Why So Few Women In Science, Technology, Engineering and Math?
Dual Academic Careers
First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks to the Dept. of Education

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Forbes contributor Robert W. Wood gives advice about which forms of higher education qualify for tax breaks. Wood lists the following articles for even more information on how to get a break from the IRS for funding one’s higher education pursuits:

Ten Rules for Deducting Career Education
Who benefits from student loans and educational tax benefits?
Two Tax Credits for Higher Education
IRS Publication 970: Business Deduction for Work Related Education
IRS Tax Topic 513: Educational Expenses
Deductibility of Work Related Educational Expenses
IRS: Tax Incentives for Higher Education

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image: taxes)

Along the lines of my previous post regarding the much abhorred Epic Fail, Emily Chapman at Hack College wrote a piece advising one to Refuse to Dwell, Move On, Kick Ass. Well put.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: kick-ass)

It turns out parents and students are less than rational when it comes to choosing institutions of higher learning for the prospective college student’s matriculation. Paying for the education venture twists everyone’s grey matter into knots as well. Let’s keep our heads in the game, people! Read this article in the Wall Street Journal: Get Smart About College.

From the article:

When weighing present obligations against future potential, it can help to take a step back. College is an investment but it’s a peculiarly intimate one; students are investing in themselves, parents in people they love. To get some perspective on the matter, families should look at choosing and paying for a college like starting a small business (You, Inc.). Would someone launch an enterprise without a line of credit? Or skimp on equipment and human capital to avoid cutting into short-term consumption?

Families should also think carefully about context when they’re making estimates of future earnings. Someone who graduates in four years is likely to have a shot at a much better first job than someone who graduates right now; many experts hope and expect the economy to look quite different by the time today’s high school students finish college.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(photo: campus)

Forbes has an article up on the 10 Things College Students Waste Money On. Tuition seems to be the least avoidable item on the list, but textbooks and school supplies are certainly full of frugal options.

1. Textbooks
2. Tuition
3. Automobiles
4. Housing
5. School Supplies
6. Food
7. Socializing
8. Applying for Credit

Also included: excellent advice on how fresh-faced college students can learn early on how to live below their means, which sets them up for a better financial life later on down the line.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(fancy school supplies)

Remember the Open Courseware Consortium folks? They’re awesome in their wielding of powers for good. They make online courseware available to educators and students everywhere. The newest project is partnering with community colleges.

Press release:

OCW CONSORTIUM PARTNERS WITH LEADING COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONSORTIUM, CCCOER, TO EXPAND ACCESS TO OPEN EDUCATION

Merger Will Bring Greater Attention to Benefits of OpenCourseWare Movement

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (June 20, 2011) — The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) has partnered with the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) to maximize and expand the impact of opencourseware to community college students, faculty and learners worldwide. CCCOER represents an important voice in higher education, having over 200 affiliated community colleges that are interested in the benefits of open sharing. Nearly 50 percent of all higher education students in the United States are enrolled in community colleges. The shared resources of CCCOER, combined with the OCW Consortium’s more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide, and its collective free online educational materials, provide access to high-quality educational and job-training materials that many users tap into on a local level.

Under the direction of then Chancellor Dr. Martha Kanter, now Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District established the CCCOER in July 2007 to identify, create, and/or repurpose existing open educational resources as open textbooks and make them available for use by community college students and faculty.

“Open educational resources and opencourseware can be leveraged to enhance the quality and delivery of courses, increase access for learners, and reduce the essential cost of curriculum materials. With the current global economic crisis, the need to minimize financial barriers to education has become increasingly salient,” said Dr. Judy Baker, dean of technology and innovation at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and one of the founders of CCCOER. “Both CCCOER and the OCW Consortium serve to increase access to education for students with limited means, which makes this partnership powerful. When educators pool their expertise to foster a culture of shared knowledge, everyone benefits.”

As part of the partnership, the OCW Consortium will represent the full spectrum of four-year and two-year universities and colleges that are part of the organizations’ memberships. The CCCOER advisory board will effectively act as a voice for the two-year colleges within the Consortium’s organization. The Consortium will help raise global awareness of community colleges’ work with open educational resources, and provide resources and support to institutions interested in participating in the movement.
“The Consortium is excited to showcase the work of community colleges and share the incredible benefits of the OCW movement with community and technical colleges around the world,” said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the OCW Consortium. “The partnership between CCCOER and the OCW Consortium allows us to raise awareness and broaden access to higher education with new audiences.”

ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform. The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(Sacramento City College)

What do you get when you smash Bill Clinton, a UNLV grad, MTV, Bill and Melinda Gates, College Board, and Facebook? No, not that. (It was my first guess, too.) A Facebook App that matches college student with any financial aid they qualify for. The vast powers of social media being used for good, not evil. So relieving.

It’ll be out this fall. Have fun with it, and avoid all the student loans you can.

Further Reading:

Pres. Clinton Announces MTV and College Board Collaboration on First-Ever Social Media Tool for Financial Aid
“Get Schooled” College Affordability Challenge
The Gates Foundation Kicks Ass

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Not me. Ever, if I can help it. If the apocalypse comes and there’s no more soap, I can promise you that my cleansing ritual will include the daily removal of at least one layer of skin using a handful of sand or some tree bark. Seriously, I have to be clean. I adore chlorinated water not only for the lap-swimming perfection the lane lines afford me, but also for the life-crushing qualities of chlorine. You would be surprised what chlorine can annihilate. It makes me feel safe.

Sean Bonner has gone eighteen months without soap or shampoo. Good for him. He’s one up on the rest of us if Mad Max rides into town with the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And think of the money he’s saving! One more item on the list of stuff college students don’t have to pay for. Textbooks, beer, or soap…one of them has to go.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(soap)