Higher Education

Today when we talk about higher education we may take that literally; education costs today are far higher than they were in the past.

I began going to college in 1960. It cost me $1,000 for room, board, and tuition; everything I spent that year. The median income in 1960 was a bit over $5,000 (equivalent to $35,000 today if that is helpful.) Costs for going to college in 1960 ranged from $680 to $2,370 for a more completepicture. [Practically anyone could go to college and afford it. It was the path to being in the middle class or having a higher standard of living than your parents.

The Median income today I think is about $50,100. The average cost at a public college today is about $22,261 or $43,289 at a private college.   The average student loan debt as of last year was about $26,600 and going up.  I don’t know what average debt was in 1960.

Today college graduates also have a hard time getting good jobs in their field giving rise to the question is it worth getting a college education? Is it the path to the middle class or expecting to have a higher standard of living than your parents? Many conclude that today students can expect to earn less than their parents; this is a sad commentary of the times given the wealth of the country has continued to rise and a steady rate, it just goes to less folk, specially more to the upper 1%.

Numerous bills have been put before congress tried to lower loan rates for students. Perhaps the best known and most sensible is Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to tie it to the Fed rate. All of these bills have failed. The Republicans are proposing to raise the student loan interest rates to 8.5%, essentially doubling them. That effort is beyond my comprehension. Are they trying to make college degrees just available to the privileged upper classes as they were in times past? Are they totally out of touch with the middle class?

 The future of our country is dependent upon having a highly educated populace to compete in a world economic structure. This is just plain self-destructive.

FDR when faced with an economy even worse than our own went to the rich folk of the country and said, we need to raise your taxes, raise them a lot, over a 90% tax rate. About half thought forget it. The other half thought, that makes long-term sense and backed him and it happened.

That doesn’t sell today. The rich are myopic and greedy and cannot see that it is in their interest to build a nation that is good for everyone. And Paul Ryan now wants to lower the upper tax rate to 25%. That is insane.