13 replies to this topic

[stocks]

The next generation of home buyers has too much college debt

Similar to the housing bubble, it was a legislative push to bring a college education to the masses that stimulated demand. Grants and loans became much more widely available over the last 10-15 years. And, safe from bankruptcy discharge, student loan debt became an easy and safe investment.

Like anything else, increased demand lead to increasing prices and, therefore, more stimulus and higher loan amounts. With the economy seemingly booming, few thought twice about taking on huge debts. After all, their college education would lead to a high-paying job.

Colleges used the extra cash to expand in every direction, adding buildings, professors, increasing salaries, and expanding facilities. Fueled by willing investors and government mandate, the price spiral grew quickly.

All of these actions were taken in the name of helping students, but few ever stopped to consider that loaning an 18-year-old kid $40,000 a year might not be “helping” him. In fact, just like housing, the beneficiaries weren’t the borrowers, but the lenders, brokers, and sellers. It is their collective, repugnant greed to blame.

Will social mood shift?

Owning a home certainly isn’t as prestigious as it was 5 years ago. The government has gone to great lengths to encourage the public to remain interested in housing…low interest rates, tax credits, stopping foreclosures, etc.

Will the demand for college, at the current costs, fall? As the discussion spreads through more and more mainstream press, one would think that more high-school grads would be hesitant about taking on college debt.


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[jack]

For Profit Colleges as a recently created vehicle for criminal loans is well documented. criminal loan--loan to the vulnerable without scrutiny. The government's role in this is naivety and or willfull ignorance

Edited by jack, 03 June 2010 - 07:05 PM.

[Rogerdodger]

For profit or non profit = criminal. Just today a friend told me he checked into vet school for his daughter at OSU. I think he said $14k per semester??? But only oil companies are greedy.

[jack]

I found this interesting COLLEGE INC

[stocks]

Senators Discuss Endowment Hoarding

Yale law professor Henry Hansmann has said that “A stranger from Mars who looks at private universities would probably say they are institutions whose business is to manage large pools of investment assets and that they run educational institutions on the side…to act as buffers for the investment pools.”


Tuition has been going up so rapidly for so long it has reached nearly ungraspable levels. So let me put today’s tuition cost in concrete terms. Senators, what would your constituents say if gasoline cost $9.15 a gallon? Or if the price of milk was over $15? That is how much those items would cost if their price had gone up at the same rate that tuition has since 1980.

I believe that skyrocketing tuition is undoubtedly the biggest “access” problem in higher education. What can possibly be more discouraging to a capable student whose parents are not wealthy than a school with a $45,000 price tag on the door?

Here’s another concrete comparison. The total worth of the top 25 college and university endowments is $11 billion greater than the combined assets of the 25 largest private foundations — including the Gates Foundation, Ford, and Rockefeller.


http://collegeafford...t-hoarding.html

[jack]

I believe that skyrocketing tuition is undoubtedly the biggest “access” problem in higher education.

My understanding is that community colleges are affordable but under funded and limited in size so you may not qualify.
College Inc will sell you a loan and enroll you NOW. Just as subprime did not help the under funded truly own a home,
-----For Profit College------ will not help their children gain USEFUL education.

I'm guessing this is the last hurrah for large scale fraudulent debt sales. But who knows. The Jails are privatized,
maybe government insured debt could be sold to prisoners.

Edited by jack, 07 June 2010 - 02:41 AM.

[OEXCHAOS]

I believe that skyrocketing tuition is undoubtedly the biggest “access” problem in higher education.

My understanding is that community colleges are affordable but under funded and limited in size so you may not qualify.
College Inc will sell you a loan and enroll you NOW. Just as subprime did not help the under funded truly own a home,
-----For Profit College------ will not help their children gain USEFUL education.

I'm guessing this is the last hurrah for large scale fraudulent debt sales. But who knows. The Jails are privatized,
maybe government insured debt could be sold to prisoners.

Eh, not-for-profit colleges cost HUGE money and they DO NOT DELIVER an economically viable product. My degree 25 years ago was barely economic. My wife would LOVE TO HAVE THE MONEY BACK from her dual MBA (MIS/Marketing). They confidently asserted that she'd be making $80k right out of school. Riiiiight.

For profit schools may well play upon the fears and needs of the naive, but the non-profits are worse. FAR worse and far more expensive and brazen. Nobody even challenges where the money goes and what the realistic return on that money is or is likely to be.

The government will make it better, of course, by throwing MORE money at them.

[jack]

The government will make it better, of course, by throwing MORE money at them.

I typed Cincinnati community college into google and went to the tuition page got this

"We really mean “affordable.”
A year at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College costs around $5,000 plus fees for an Ohio resident. That’s around 50 percent less than the amount ($8,434) you would pay at the average Ohio public university, and it is only about 25 percent of the amount ($19,710) you’d pay at the average four-year private college. By attending Cincinnati State, in two years you would have saved about $8,500 over the average Ohio public university, and over $30,000 for two years at the average private four-year college."

Dont know if its typical, well regarded, or any detail of the place but.....
institutions like this are trying to educate young Americans. If they are passed over for funding,
crowded out of the education "market" , your country will not be well served. IMO


l

[OEXCHAOS]

The government will make it better, of course, by throwing MORE money at them.

I typed Cincinnati community college into google and went to the tuition page got this

"We really mean "affordable."
A year at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College costs around $5,000 plus fees for an Ohio resident. That's around 50 percent less than the amount ($8,434) you would pay at the average Ohio public university, and it is only about 25 percent of the amount ($19,710) you'd pay at the average four-year private college. By attending Cincinnati State, in two years you would have saved about $8,500 over the average Ohio public university, and over $30,000 for two years at the average private four-year college."

Dont know if its typical, well regarded, or any detail of the place but.....
institutions like this are trying to educate young Americans. If they are passed over for funding,
crowded out of the education "market" , your country will not be well served. IMO

l

Actually Cincinnati State is a gem. People actually get decent jobs coming out of there and the quality of their curriculum is quite good. Of course, this is not a university and academics and liberal arts are not taught there. It's mostly material with direct application in the job market.

The beef I have is with the financial aid essentially being indentured servitude for kids who aren't getting their money's worth.

CSTCC is a rare exception to that rule.

[jack]

The beef I have is with the financial aid essentially being indentured servitude for kids who aren't getting their money's worth.

Si