Benefits Of Extortion In Education

Matt Taibbi argues in his Rolling Stone article titled “Ripping Off America: The College-Loan Scandal” that the government is the primary source to blame for today’s appalling inflation rates on increasing student debt. Additionally, he argues that the reason the tuition is so exploitative and unfair, is because it was created to benefit two groups. The first being, “…colleges and universities, and the contractors who build their extravagant athletic complexes, hotel-like dormitories and God knows what other campus embellishments” (Taibbi). Next up, the other group that gains from the current system is the government. This is because, “…the government actually stands to make an enormous profit on the president 's new federal student-loan system, an estimated $184 billion over 10 years” (Taibbi). Further, Taibbi goes onto to state that students often have no idea what they are signing up for with student loans, because not all students have access to the same information. Finally, Taibbi mentioned that “because of the poor job market, young people may have less of a chance than ever to actually get a good job commensurate with their education” (Taibbi). This means that with no degree, students have no chance, but with a degree you are forced down a road of high risk, and at the end you are likely to be left with a ton of debt.

In our lives today, not everyone can financially afford to attend a four year university or college, but yet people still attend because they have academic goals. Currently there is help with grants, merit scholarships and loans available for some. However many students do not realize they will eventually be left to pay the majority of the money back. Students who want an education should get it, a country such as the United States should provide students with financial aid.

The main reason why society is affected by the fees is because less people are attending university purely because it’s too costly. Even after graduation, you are not guaranteed a job so some people become jobless while having to pay back the debt.

Universities used to be a privilege for most academic students to attend and it was very affordable, but currently the price per year to attend college has drastically increased. For instance, in the “1970’s the average cost was 10,000 dollars a year and today the average cost is 30,000 dollars a year” (CQ Researcher). This is a triple increase in the price per year to attend college. Allowing this increase on college tuition has impacted the student’s attendance rate. This is a significant financial burden for college students and their family. Some believe that college shouldn’t be free because we are risking the value of college education, while others think it should be free because we are trying to avoid having our upcoming generation

Students are taken advantage of with student loans. Most students cannot afford to go to college and turn to student loans. Usually this is a combination of the students, parents, and financial aids ideas and problem solving in order to afford the schooling at the university or college of choice. The student is the one who signs the agreement that they will pay off the loan. Most students do not read the booklet that you have to read before signing, and most also do not read the small print. Both of these pieces of literature include the interest rates that constitute the bill that the student will have to pay in the future. Students do not read these because they are just so excited to be able to go to college and not have to worry about paying all of it during their schooling.

In 1976, the average cost to attend a four year public university was $2,175; today, the average cost to attend a four year public university is $25,000 (Snyder). This means it is 1150% more expensive to go to college in The United States today than it was 30 years ago. This obviously would create a problem on how we as people are going to pay for our higher education. Today college has become almost a necessity to have a satisfactory life, and with these rising prices some individuals believe student loans are the only option. There are many reasons as to why the prices have risen, but the one undeniable fact is that this has created a problem within our country. Which, is known as the student debt crisis, and it has been on the rise the past couple years. This problem is affecting people all around the United States, and is causing multitude of problems for them all because they wanted to pursue higher education. Wanting to better your opportunities by bettering yourself is not something that needs to be punished, and sadly that is what is happening. This problem is something that needs to be fixed for the sake of Americans and our economy, but will also take time and a multitude of steps to correct.

One of the culprits hindering higher education for Americans is the tuition rates. A report by the Delta Cost Project indicates that if tuition had grown in pace with inflation, the average tuition at in-state public colleges would only have been $2,052 in 2010. The actual price of tuition was around $7,500, and it is increasing at around 5% per year, about twice as fast as the rate of inflation. Whereas everything else in the economy doubles in cost about every 32 years, college costs have been doubling around every 15 years. In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College, the author, Caroline Hoxby, states that universities have little incentive

This then causes students to shy away from the mission, thus affecting their overall performance of acting or learning in class and public. According to Hacker and Dreifus, “...professors must make an effort to reach their students...they must become conscientious, caring, and attentive to every corner of their classrooms” (Dreifus and Hacker 180). While this may be true, colleges are definitively becoming overly involved in satisfying students through specific programs and activities, which results in little concern of actual student welfare and education. If colleges have no concern for their students, then why should students be expected to pay and not receive an acceptable education? Though students have significant qualms towards the expected payment for tuition, they are more focused on

An increasing cost in tuition prevents some students from pursuing a higher education. Such high college tuitions are unfair to the lower and middle classes who may want to receive a higher education. Preventing the financially unstable from receiving a higher education weakens the development of society in the United States. You should not have to be rich to receive a respectable education.

overall cost of a higher education. The lack of resources of providing students in these situations

The price of tuition and the amount of student debt that graduates find themselves in is another thing that is hurting the scholars in this country. In America, the student loan debt is at a whopping 1.31 trillion dollars with the average student owing around 37 thousand dollars. This is, in one word, unacceptable. How can the expectation be for students to attend these colleges and acquire higher education when they have to pay an arm and a leg just to receive their diploma? This system is setting them up for failure, on top of the fact that finding a job and a lifelong career after college is hard enough. Knowing that they have to add on 37 thousand dollars of worry and stress onto their plate, such not be the norm of the average

The simple answer for where they are getting this money from is, from the students, through tuition. College used to be just for the wealthy elite, but that changed after World War II with the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights (Sanchez). Now it almost seems like it is about to go back to way it, which was college was just for the elite wealthy. According to Sanchez, over the last five years tuition and fees have skyrocketed, with some schools increasing in cost up to 70 percent and in some cases more. Average tuition at public 4-year colleges was $7,600 in the 2010 academic year, up from $2,100 in 1980, and the  average tuition at private 4-year colleges nearly tripled in a generation, increasing from $9,500 in the 1980 academic year to $27,300 in 2010 (Garofalo). This is crazy to think about. Since 1980 both private and public 4-year colleges on average have rising triple the amount it used to cost to go to college. If this rate continues, college is going to become just for the elite wealthy like it was 70 years ago. This is why it is almost impossible for students to not come out of college with any type student debt at

According to MyBudget360, college tuition has skyrocketed over four hundred percent since 1984. Now, the average tuition rate for private universities in America is over $31,000 and over $9,000 for public universities. Not only that, but thirty-seven million Americans have outstanding student debt and thirty-seven percent of college students look for a job requiring no higher than a high school diploma AFTER they graduate. Tuition has tripled, graduates have outstanding student debt, and in addition to that, graduates look for menial jobs where even a high school diploma is not necessary. College expenses definitely adversely affect students and graduates in the long run.

The tuition increases have come in response to the lack of federal funding to universities, leading them to find their own way to provide for their upkeep. “Recent increases in university tuition fees are part of a new entrepreneurial trend in higher education in which institutions are expected to generate more of their own revenue” (Quirke). The universities have decided that since they can no longer look towards federal funds to fuel their costs of maintenance and revenue, they must find a new route towards attaining much needed funds, and they have chosen to

Before debating on whether increasing tuition fee is unfair to future students, we should keep in mind that the current education system and policy can never benefit everyone. Especially when the competition between universities is a lot more intense nowadays. Increasing the income and value of the school is the priority. If one has no money or resources provided, it is less likely that he or she can be enrolled at a university compared to others. Thus, the