RESPECTED ECONOMIST SAYS HIGHER ED BUBBLE STARTING TO BURST

Respected economist Richard Vedder began his recent talk to University of Missouri students on the higher education bubble by comparing the subject to hemorrhoid surgery.

It only went downhill from there.

“Listening to someone drone on and on about high college costs is akin to having to endure the pain of hemorrhoid surgery,” Vedder said to the 50-plus students gathered to hear the Ohio University scholar and prolific writer on higher education trends delve into financial concerns facing today’s college students.

Vedder said federally subsidized college loans have forced tuition rates through the roof and wreaked havoc on college students’ checking accounts and future debt, but perhaps worst of all is how the program has hurt the very students it aimed to help: low-income ones.

“Federally subsidized loans, created sometime during the 1970s, were supposed to help poor young people get an affordable college education,” he said. “But, as the years go by, we have actually seen education become less affordable for poor people, not more affordable.”

“Prior to federally subsidized loans becoming the norm, 12 percent of young, low-income students were acquiring degrees, but now, 40 years later, and untold millions of taxpayer dollars later, that number has dropped to 7 percent,” he added. “Poor people are being hurt by federally subsidized school loans.”

There’s more bad news.

“Admissions rates decreased last year for the first time in several years, showing that students are beginning to shy away from getting a college education, simply because it is too damn expensive,” Vedder said.  (more...)

RESPECTED ECONOMIST SAYS HIGHER ED BUBBLE STARTING TO BURST