An opinion brief on the website "The Week" called "Is Education the Next Bubble?" looks at people who want to give advice to those seeking higher education. It was interesting to me to see the Founder of Pay Pal, the payment website famous by EBay, encouraging young people to not bother investing in an overpriced education. As I agree with this statement, we must be real and say that at this point, all education can be considered overpriced. Seeing our educational system here in NH, our tuition will only rise if our state government votes to cut our state university budget. A commenter on this article said that he is seeking to cut costs of getting an education, but even community college is becoming more and more an investment.
Another interesting aspect of this conversation is the old idea of college being an investment that will definitely have a return. The reason so many people these days are reluctant to pay high amounts for education is the fact that jobs are not available after graduation anymore to give back these said returns. I wasn't very impressed to see one quote from the article: "Grad school has become a socially acceptable way to drink beer, read, and go into massive debt in your 20s" said a writer for The Atlantic. As someone who wishes to soon begin to apply for grad school and save money in order to pursue that goal, I am not excited for an atmosphere such as that described.
I believe it is somewhat accurate to label this as a bubble crisis, as we are so fond as to put that label on anything that gives our wallets heartache. I think that the only way our society will relieve the pressures of high priced higher education is if the government stops cutting money out of budgets that are for education. This seems like such a simple idea, yet no one seems to be acting on this principle.
http://theweek.com/article/index/214400/is-education-the-next-bubble
6 comments:
Yes tuition is outrageous, but I can hardly say that it isn't worth it. The person I was graduating high school is a completely different person. Not only am I more educated academically, socially I am more ready for the real world. I don't understand people who say higher education is not worth it. The experience is incredible, the price is terrible but in the end would any of us take back these four years?
As an in-state student here at Plymouth State, I guess I have a bit of an advantage in that there are lower costs to attend; but with the growing concern over budget costs, I am started to become more and more skeptical to believe that I will actually be able to afford my remaining years here. I also plan on attending some sort of graduate school, either here or elsewhere, and it is truly outrageous the costs associated with getting that sort of advanced degree. I agree with Elisia in that the education I have received thus far has been been more than effective in helping me to become a more informed individual, but personally I'm not sure to what extent many people are willing to empty their bank accounts to stay in school.
I've been seeing this argument quite frequently, and seeing people try to convince our generation to not attend higher education. It's all an anti-intellectualism, and it's something that is going to kill this country slowly. I don't quite know how I feel about the direction of our higher education, personally, but in general it's a good opportunity and people shouldn't be discouraging us from going into school.
It seems there are those who are trying to use scare tactics to keep others from attending high education. Just because there are those who drink, do drugs, and screw off in college/grad school, doesn't mean that's the majority of the population.
I agree with Nicole completely; higher education should be in no way discouraged for the youth of Americans. As it is, we are as a country, much less educated than many other areas. I think people should really reconsider spreading messages such as this.
Basically what we are seeing today is a strong sense of selfishness in our society. People do not want to have to shell out money for something that does not directly impact, or help them out. No one likes to pay high taxes, but if those taxes are going to education or social programs, wont it make our society as a whole that much better? People also don't like to think "long term" when it comes to budget. In NH, they are not thinking long term, they are only trying to make a budget that they can pass this year, and they don't care what they cut. Frankly, they are turning people off of going to school in NH, and I think even in the US. Students might be more likely in the coming years to go to school overseas.
If people do not get a higher education then how will there be an opportunity for people to specialize in certain careers and to be successful. To discourage people from going into higher education is like telling them they need to stop going somewhere positive with their lives and that there is no opportunity for anyone to do anything they enjoy to help better the world.
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