What’s wrong with college education? Tuition costs are soaring, while the job market for recent graduates is getting worse and worse. According to Tuitionomics 101, a new video produced by Generation Opportunity, intervention by the federal government is behind much of the increase in cost.
“Young Americans are being asked to pay more for a lower quality product,” said Evan Feinberg, president of Generation Opportunity. Feinberg pointed out that the average cost of college has increased by more than 500 percent since the mid-1980s, leading to soaring increases in the amount of student debt carried by recent graduates.
According to Feinberg, the first reason is that government is regulating and paying for higher education, which raises the price. The second reason is what he deemed an “unholy alliance” between the status quo of large educational institutions and politicians looking to be reelected. This isn’t a recent problem. Rather, it is the result of policies which first started with President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society in the 1960s and which sought to open college education to lower income students.
“Every young college student today is being held back for years because of the unintended consequences of these policies,” said Feinberg.
He argues that these policies sent a powerful signal to colleges and universities, telling them that increases in college tuition would be covered by government-subsidized loans. At the same time, accreditation standards push innovative educational options out of the market, while raising the cost of traditional colleges and universities.
“The educational-industrial complex is keeping these innovations out of the market and making education cost more,” he said.
According to Feinberg, the problem is not student loans, but flaws in the structure of higher education itself.
Since 83 percent of the class of 2014 graduated last spring without a job lined up, despite more than 70 percent saying that they were actively searching for work, it’s clear that something has to change.
Watch the video below:
