[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The Democrats solution was to give students more money to give to colleges. The real problem is that the cost of post-secondary education has been increasing at more than twice the rate of inflation for more than 30 years now. Nobody can really give any good reason why this is something we just have to accept.

This was on both parties. Both parties have influence on how these bills are drafted and the language that goes in them. If it were up to the Democrats they would have forgiven student loans a long time ago and have regulated education. The Republicans love them some expensive education as it leads to massive interest payments on loans, so they have done nothing to change a system that works in their favor. Seriously, my student loans are another mortgage payment. Between my wife and I we could afford another house if it weren’t for getting raped on our student loans. Someone will have to explain why the interest rate on my student loan is twice what my mortgage is? They are gouging students because they can get away with it. It is very difficult to get ahead without education. Most people can’t get education without taking out loans. Once you have them they never go away, even in bankruptcy. Education with student loans is legal enslavement.

Is the quality or value of post-secondary education better than it was 40 years ago?

It’s worse, but that is because of the quality of students. Most students can barely write at a grade eight level. Unfortunately you can’t drum them out as they are the revenue stream.

Why hasn't the massive increase in enrolment brought costs down, the way you would expect with economies of scale?

Because there is a massive administration involved with schools now. You need people to sell the programs. You need advisors to help the little darlings get through their program. You need people to help them get their student loans! You need people to listen to their complaints, because they are all special and complain about everything. And of course, you need layers and layers of bureaucracy to deal with everything. It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a ####ing city of people to educate it!

Why are we still using a 200 year old model of delivering education - sitting in theatres being lectured by a professor reading from his notes - when technology could dramatically reduce the costs involved?

Schools are moving to other means of delivery. There are all sorts of online classes, but most people can’t learn that way. They prefer the access to the professor and the baby sitting service they provide.

You are also missing the costs associated with migrating these education services to the virtual world. It costs a lot to develop the content to deliver on the Internet. It costs a lot to license the Learning Management System for delivery. The infrastructure is expensive and you need some serious bandwidth to deliver virtual services. That ain’t cheap. You also have to find people that are capable of teaching online. It is a completely different beast and very few of the tradition instructors can deal with the challenges. It is a work in progress, but with the budgets being trimmed by state governments it is hard to try and make the changes needed.

The post-secondary education sector has deeply entrenched interests who are cling to an anachronistic model out of self-interest. Uprooting those interests is where the solution lies, not in throwing more money down the rat-hole.

Not at all true. The biggest problem was the success that University of Phoenix had in the early 2000’s. Their for-profit model changed everything and made every institution believe they could do things the same way. Schools started hiring presidents that didn’t know education and were only business people (usually bean counters or bankers) and they destroyed their schools trying to become the next UoP.

UoP was the one who introduced the whole concept of running the institution with solely adjunct faculty, a move that others thought was smart because it trimmed the bottom line. The problem is that students go to your school because of the faculty that teach in particular classes, not because you are making money. I worked at one school that used to have dozens of residential faculty, and they are now down to two. What is it exactly that you have to sell prospective students? The faculty is your product!

UoP was also the ones to commoditize education, bringing in the sales people and dedicated advisors who were responsible to push the student through and make sure they were signed up (and financed) for the next class. Other schools followed that model, bloating the administration.

Education is broken in America because they started trying to run it like a business. If they had continued to run education as an education institution, and not a used car lot, they would have been much more successful. Competition is good in some industries, but basic human services like education is not one of them. The US is headed down the ####ter because they treat people like a profit opportunity at every turn, including education and health care. That is where the culture is broken.