High Cost Of Higher Education

Introduction

Parents in the US have been pushed to the corner they know and appreciate the significance of a college education but affordability hinders most of them from meeting their children’s wants. In today’s competitive world, even straightforward jobs require bachelor’s degrees. Consequently, students end up attending colleges far from their hometowns, apply for scholarships or drop out altogether. Despite numerous scholarship offers, some students still miss quality education due to the fact they may possibly not qualify for college education. Moreover, those students who attend colleges end up struggling to meet their every day expenses considering that their parents spend a substantial portion for their incomes on tuition alone. The investigation aims at searching at the causes and consequences of rising educational expenses. Moreover, it seeks to supply a solution to this reeling problem. (Benassi, 2005)

Causes of rising higher education costs

Numerous politicians, District Education Boards and school administrators agree on the truth that declining state support is the primary reason behind plummeting college costs. The state is responsible for covering tuition cots. Even so, tuition costs only take up thirty three percent of total educational expenses in these institutions. Colleges and universities have to take care of these anomalies on their own. Most of them end up increasing tuition costs or reducing the number of programs on supply. This is eventually translated to the students who has to attend college regardless of their financial positions. The scenario is further aggravated by competition among distinct sectors of the economy. The health sector has taken up a lot of government funding leaving small for education. Moreover, the state has to spend on lower income earners or on retirees leaving the public sector.

One more major reason for these rising cost is growing competition among universities and colleges. Reports such as ‘US News and World Report’ generally rank universities and colleges in terms of the nature and availability of resources. Consequently, many institutions want to show that they are a force-to-reckon-with. Most of them employ quite costly and famous professors, create state of the art dormitories and expand their sporting facilities. Eventually, the student body has to meet these expenditures. It need to be noted that an arms race among universities is common in the private rather than in public schools. Nonetheless, the very same behavior trickles down to public schools given the fact that they also want to secure excellent students or create excellent outcomes. (Lang, 2006)

Rising costs happen due to the fact universities and colleges feel that they have the mandate to do so. The demand for college or university education is continuously on the increasing estimates have shown that the graduating class this year will be the highest ever recorded. However, seating space and classrooms have remained as they had been. This implies that universities and colleges are in charge they know that Americans desperately require college education. 1 of the factors for this high demand is that income gaps between degree and diploma holders keeps rinsing. Employers have reinforced this perception because they give priority to university-educated people. Universities keep growing their prices because they are aware that this will not minimize their intake levels at all.

Extent and consequences of the difficulty

Between the years 2002 and 2007, greater education costs have increased by a whooping thirty percent. This was a report produced by the College Board right after generating a number of adjustments. Statistics further indicate that tuition costs have risen quicker than health insurance, consumer prices and even individual income. Between the years 2006 and 2007 public universities charge a 12, 796 dollars for tuition and boarding fees. Private universities are even much more notorious they charge a whooping 30, 367 dollars for the exact same. The following figures on tuition expenses in public colleges indicate just how serious these rising costs are

2006-2007                                  Alter from 2005-2006

Alabama                              ,915                                               5%

California                           ,560                                               1%

District of Columbia             ,210                                               27%

Hawaii                                 ,257                                               22%

Illinois                                  ,133                                               2%

North Carolina        ,063                                               10%

Florida                                ,336                                               4%

National avg.                       ,836                                               6%

Source: College Board (2008): Report on university tuition expenses, retrieved from http://www.collegeboard.com

As if rising tuition expenses are not problematic enough, even federal aid has reduced over the past five years. Consequently, there are growing numbers of college students who have to live on students loans. This means that they leave college with large debts. Actually, reports indicate that students debts have doubled over the past decade. In the year 1993, students with debts had to repay only ,250 yet debts stand at 19,200 dollars in the year 2007. These numbers have changed by fifty eight percent following which includes an adjustment for inflation over these years. Some stakeholders assert that increasing the amount of federal aid will only inflate tuition costs further simply because schools will always count on state backup.

Scholarships provided to most students only manage to cover about twenty percent of educational expenses. This means that students themselves have to cover the rest. Parents have been forced to use up their emergency savings accounts. Those who occur to have college savings funds are compelled to use up all of it. Regardless of collecting funds from all sources, students will still graduate from college with debts to the tune of fifty thousand dollars or far more.

The rising costs make it very tough for parents to strategy well for their children’s education. Repeatedly, parents assert that they have had to add about two thousand dollars much more every year their children attend college.  This makes it quite challenging to spending budget as 1 can’t anticipate what their child’s college will demand from them in the next year. (Martin, 2008)

The state funding system was set up in order to accommodate and fund students from poor backgrounds. Nevertheless, this has not been achieved effectively due to the fact the students who end up obtaining state funds are those ones who comprehend the application process and not the ones who require it the most. It is very tough for parents to secure scholarship for their students given the fact that most acceptance lists come out in student’s final high school years. Consequently, those who choose on the colleges they would like to attend have to do so hurriedly. Most of them end up picking the wrong institution or missing out on a scholarship altogether. It really should be noted that most of the students who qualify for scholarships are those ones who come from fairly stable backgrounds. In order to be well informed, their parents have to be at a excellent monetary position. Parents hailing from humble backgrounds could not know about the intricacies of application. These very same poor families have to deal with the rising education costs. Consequently, such groups have to squeeze their budgets even much more.

Feasible solutions

Congress has attempted to curb these soaring costs. For instance in 2007, they produced a proposal to minimize interest rates on student loans. Nevertheless, such an approach could not necessarily be the way forward. Decreasing interest rates can not guarantee controlled college costs. Legislations must take the difficulty head on. Policies need to curb the inflated costs and not just interests on student loans.

The state could enhance the amounts they give in grant systems. This means that there will be more funds offered for students both in public and private schools. Additionally, the state could improve their loan repayment possibilities. The field of education is essential to the US economy and really should be given some special privileges over and above what other sectors obtain. Besides these, the state could assess the program they use for choosing students who qualify for sponsorship. The government really should aim at regulating fees from wealthy schools into poor schools. In this case, poor schools refer to those universities or colleges with high numbers of low income students. The government need to steer clear of producing legislations that boost the burden of payment on parents. Such legislations contain scraping student loan consolidation. In 2004, Congress had proposed such a measure claiming that these allocations had been costing the government large sums. Such policies could spell doom for parents and should be discouraged at all expenses. (Strauss and Wagner, 2008)

The federal government requirements to step up their actions against universities or colleges that take advantage of their students. For instance, the state could set a cost cap for growing tuition fees for public universities and private institutions too. They could pass a law that penalizes universities that exceed this amount. The most proper penalty in this case is eliminating federal state funds for such universities or colleges. These cost caps could be revised annually to make them in tune with economic conditions.

Moreover, the state could offer some unique financial packages for students who perform well in school. The packages could be produced automatic and could be tailored to needy students. Federal governments are already doing this in particular states and much more states can adopt these measures too. Georgia already has a program identified as Hope scholarship that operates on such a principle. New Jersey also has a comparable program for residents who attend colleges inside the state. Other people ought to adopt comparable measures. (Martin, 2008)

The government require not be the only party that can trigger changes in the greater education sector. Universities and colleges themselves can do the identical. They can make individual arrangements to lessen these rising expenses. A case in point is the University of Virginia. The institution decided to introduce scholarships amounting to 16million dollars. These scholarships had been meant for poor students and replaced student loans. Yet another notable university is Princeton they developed a various loan system based on needs rather than grants. The rest of the student population was given a total of 14, 520 dollar cap on tuition. All these adjustments occurred in the year 2001. Other universities that followed suit contain

Harvard
University of North Carolina

Harvard decided to lessen the quantity of contributions coming from parents who earn much less than forty thousand dollars annually. Additionally, they also decreased contributions to be created by parents who earn less than sixty thousand dollars annually. (Lederman, 2008)

The University of North Carolina opted to enhance the number of full time grants to students who work for the university at between ten to twelve hours. Such an initiative goes a long way in cushioning students against rising tuition costs.

Conclusion

Rising greater education expenses squeeze family members budgets and could hinder promising students from joining the very good colleges or universities. The government can do a lot to curb this problem they could introduce price caps for private and public institutions in order to reduce these fluctuations. Moreover, they could introduce direct sponsorship program for needy but promising students. The government ought to steer clear of legislations that minimize state funding. Universities can also do their part by decreasing contributions made by low income parents and by growing full time grants.

Reference:

Lang, S. (2006): How competition for the very best students, faculties and facilities sends tuition soaring, retrieved from http://www.news.cornell.edu accessed on 11th July

Benassi, F. (2005): Growing Over Rising Price of Higher Education, retrieved from www.standardandpoors.com/ringsdirec accessed on 11th July

Valerie Strauss and John Wagner (2008): Md. Keeps a Lid on Tuition, retrieved from http://www.washigntonpots.com accessed on 11th July

Lederman, D. (2008): A College-Friendly Take on Rising Prices, retrieved from http://www.insidehighered.com accessed on 11th July

Martin, T. (2008): Rising tuition threatens Michigan education goals, The Related Press