IN-TUITION

College and university tuitions are way higher now than when I went to college.  The burden of student loan debt to finance same is crushing, and job prospects for graduates (and loan payback) are slim.  Student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, so it hangs like a blood-sucking tick on the student debtor for a very long time.  Student loan debt, unlike most federal programs, is VERY profitable for the US government!  Beginning with us Baby Boomers in the mid-1960's, the DEMAND for college has way outstripped the SUPPLY of available places and grows with every year.  Indifferent "semi-pro" athletes on athletic "scholarships" are subsidized by tuition-paying students.  A college degree is a must-have for almost everyone, since the future income prospects for those without one are horribly (and mistakenly) degraded.  Too many people are being told that they must attend college AT ANY COST, and so it is.  The colleges and universities are just charging whatever the market will bear, AS THEY SHOULD!

When DEMAND exceeds SUPPLY, costs go up.  That is basic economics.

Some people of indifferent academic abilities should be diverted to trade schools Instead.  I should have gone to a trade school instead of wasting space in college and law school!  I finally DID go to auto mechanics school and got top grades!  I passed all 8 ASE Master Mechanic's exams TWICE!  I always wanted to be a car mechanic, and when I finally did that, I realized I had been wrong to pursue "academic" courses beginning so many years ago.  I don't regret my formal education, but I did get it kicking and screaming the whole way!  I was simply not allowed to consider any alternatives to college, except being wounded or killed in Vietnam!  Not much of a choice worth having, anyway!

All colleges and universities ought to quit awarding the oxymoronic "athletic scholarships" to good athletes who don't really care about getting an academic education.  Why should the colleges and universities provide a FREE "farm system" for the NBA and NFL, when major-league baseball must maintain its own farm system?  All colleges and universities should be put under the NCAA Division III rules (academic scholarships only) immediately.  That would create a "level playing field" that would be fair to all fans, and good athletes uninterested in formal education could go into a basketball or football pro farm system maintained by the majors.  Good athletes who are also scholars could get real "scholarships" AND play their favorite sports!

That might then obviate the idiotic debate about whether or not college athletes should be paid for their labors!  I understand their desire to share in the ocean of athletic cash flowing through college and university coffers, but it's nonsense!  Maybe coaches will finally get lower salaries than the college presidents!  All money generated within an athletic program should be deemed to belong to the school.  Why should coaches be allowed to divert those funds into their own pockets?  Same for research funds given to professors!  If school resources are used to generate those funds, then they should belong to the schools!  More money might then be freed up to provide more tenure-track faculty positions and fringe benefits, especially if the administrative bureaucracies are brought to heel.

If DEMAND for college student space were reduced, the costs must eventually come down, and so would the currently outrageous bite of student loans.