There is much discussion of the national crisis of student debt. The total student debt is twice the amount of credit card debt. These discussions are dominated by allegations of college mismanagement, student indolence, an alleged decline in the value of higher education, predatory lenders, and greedy professors. Not only are such lines of argument specious, they miss the root cause of the current student debt crisis — the five-decades-long abandonment by states to support higher education.
In 1970-71 the average annual tuition cost for attending a public college or university was $394. By 2020-21 the average annual tuition costs was $10,560, a whopping 2,580% increase. Why? Because states have systematically reduced per student funding for years and shifted funding to the students. In 2021 California reduced public funding of higher education by $1.7 billion or 10%. Between 2008 and 2018 Arizona cut higher education funding by 55%. These recurring budget cuts have given Trustees no choice but to operate increasingly like private institutions relying on student tuition and fund-raising to operate. In fact, calling many of these institutions “state” or “public” is increasingly hypocritical—they are private institutions operating on state-owned land.
American higher education has been the envy of the world and the engine that has driven American innovation, economic growth, personal success, and expansion of the middle class. States simply cannot continue to abandon support of higher education for short term budget relief or they will contribute to the genuine decline in the American Dream and American exceptionalism.
— Stephen W. King, Chico
Source link
