Repeat after me: “Duh.” David Cho of the Washington Post reports the tough news about college loans and then dances around the fundamental problem before concluding with a quote from some college president burdened by the last name Marx. The faculty at Amherst probably giggled when they voted him in as President because nothing warms the heart of a refugee from the real world like Karl Marx’s dream that someone else will pay for it. President Marx concludes:
“The big macro question is: Will we have to sacrifice the quality of education, or the access, based on talent rather than the ability to pay?” said Marx, the Amherst president. “Either of those make America less competitive for the next generation.”
Yeah. Sure. I bet. If the current generation doesn’t get steeped in cross-disciplinary biomimetical ethical post-modern linguistics, they’re not going to be able to compete with the kids in China and India who grow up thinking that you earn a salary by providing something the world needs like food, heat, or a roof.
Alas, the private credit markets are telling President Marx that they’re not going to gamble on the next generation of Amherst students making enough money to pay off their outrageous loans.
I’m willing to bet that the next generation will be even more competitive if they’re nurtured in underheated cinderblock dorms and taught by professors who are forced to develop the ability to teach by being allocated 3 or even– gasp– 4 courses in a semester. I doubt Mr. Marx sees it the way I do, but he may be forced to because there’s no money out there. They’ve already overloaded the middle class students with debt. They’ve already squeezed the parents into taking out second or third mortgages. They’ve jawboned the Federal government into pouring an endless stream of money into research. The state governments get pushed and pushed to fund campuses and the college presidents just keep raising the prices because they’re frickin addicted to paying for that assistant professor to skip teaching for a semester to go on a research gathering trip to Europe.
The only ones left who aren’t saving for a college education are the retirees and they’re pretty much tapped out. Good luck Mr. Marx.
Related posts:
- Big loans, big problems
- “Surely, you have a Harvard degree. You’ll get a job.”
- $140,000 in loans tears apart a student
- Forgive student loans? One man dreams.
- Research Universities Ask Obama for More Money
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds
BlogoSquare
2 Comments so far (Add 1 more)