Student Debt and Administrative Bloat



Do you have a child graduating from high school this month?  Part of those tears you shed may have been for the cost of their upcoming college education.   Take heart.  It will be worth it.  Take a look at the following table (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) that shows the average unemployment rate and median weekly income for various education levels. 
Education attained
Unemployment rate in 2015 (percent)
Median weekly earnings in 2015
Doctoral degree
1.7
$1,623
Professional degree
1.5
$1,730
Master's degree
2.4
$1,341
Bachelor's degree
2.8
$1,137
Associate's degree
3.8
$798
Some college, no degree
5
$738
High school diploma
5.4
$678
Less than a high school diploma
8
$493
All workers
4.3
$860

The down side of this otherwise optimistic graph is the ugly shadow of debt from student loans that clouds the future of our students.  Hillary has recently tried to buy off Sanders supporters with her take on student debt.  She equates paying off the debt and saving for retirement.
a.      student accumulates the average $29,000 in debt earning a college degree.
b.      The student pays the debt off over 20 years at the minimum of $190/month.
c.       If the student put the same money into a 401K over that time they would accumulate $86,000 in retirement savings instead.
Her conclusion is that the government (i.e. tax payers) should simply pay off these debts.  But this does not solve the problem or acknowledge the fact that students are not getting any real value for their increased debt load. 
In the 1960’s the National Defense Loan program helped large numbers of lower middle class students go to college—including me.  In 1964 (the year I started college) the average yearly cost was $950.   By 2007 the cost was up to $11,034.  That is 173% greater than the rate of inflation!  Here is what happened.
As the federal student loan program grew, colleges started milking this cow for the cream.  They raised tuition far beyond the worth of the education they were providing.  They hired prestigious, big name professors who then did not teach, but turned their classes over to graduate students who are neither experts nor teachers. 
The increased money went to bloated administrations.  In the last 20 years the number of university administrators has increased by 60% (which is 10 times greater than the rate of instructors).  These college presidents and their associate toadies receive millions of dollars in salary, as well as perks and retirement bonuses.  The president of Ohio State University tops the list at over $6 million dollars in salary alone. 
Hillary, Sanders and other leftist tell us they have a Nigerian Prince on speed dial who will solve our problems.  They don’t.  But we can solve this by making the universities or trade schools (any institution whose students qualify for student loans) bear the pain for the student debt they have created.
Starting now, we should pass a law that federal student loan debt will be reduced by 10% of principal for each year a student has employment and makes regular payments on his student loan after leaving school.  That reduction would continue until all of the debt is forgiven or paid.  Where does the money for this largess come from?  From colleges who will be required to take the money out of their administrators’ salaries.  It is time to make the useless bloat of university administration pay for their profligate gaming of the taxpayers’ intention to help students. 
Get the pigs out of the creek and keep the faith. 

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