Friday, July 13, 2007

Bitterness toward Higher Ed

Americans losing faith in college education

5 comments:

Robert C. said...

Quote:"The percentage who say that many qualified, motivated students do not have the opportunity to attend college has risen sharply, from 45 percent in 1998 to 62 percent today."

This is sad because, as it turns out, 62 percent of my students are unqualified and unmotivated. If we can get those students out of school, and bring in some of these motivated students I keep hearing about, we'll be set.

Yet it's all about money. More students than ever go to college. Are state schools really that much more expensive than they were 25 years ago, or are Americans just worried about it now? One reason they're more worried now: 25 years ago, a smaller percentage went to college, so fewer people had to worry about the cost at all.

It would be easy for Andrew L. Yarrow to give us some facts and statistics to back up his analysis. Then we would at least have the chance of becoming more informed after reading his dumb op-ed. The only fact he gives us to support his argument is that at his institution, tuition is $50,000/year. That doesn't sound representative to me. But Yarrow doesn't need facts; since facts tend to contradict his arguments, he'd rather just argue public policy based on poll numbers.

But yeah, there's some bitterness there.

Stephen said...

Some recent numbers:
http://www.highereducation.org/reports/affordability_supplement/aux_graph_1.shtml

Stephen said...

Since 1985: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781878.html

Stephen said...

"The College Board today announced that at four-year public colleges the increase in average tuition and fees slowed for the third year in a row, but prices are still up 35 percent from 5 years ago, after adjusting for inflation."
http://www.collegeboard.com/press/releases/150634.html

Robert C. said...

Not quite 50,000/year, but thanks for giving me some stats.