THE ONE THING WE ALL DON’T THINK ABOUT AT FIRST

“By making college unaffordable and student loans unbearable, we risk deterring our best and brightest from pursuing higher education and securing a good-paying job.” – Mark Pocan

Student Debt is, right now, the one thing that people don’t think about in our world, but it is one of the biggest things that can hold someone back from succeeding in the modern world.

Right now, according to CNBC, student debt in the country has reached $1.16 TRILLION. This is second to mortgages and followed by credit card debt. In Washington, state and federal funding for higher education has dropped to approximately $3,000 per student enrolled per year in 2011 from approximately $5,000 per student enrolled in 1991 (2).

Since state support has dropped, institutions need to raise their tuition and other fees to be able to stay alive. This means that people have to take out more money to be able to go to school. This debt is able to ruin a student’s life before they get out on their own. Student debt cannot be defaulted on if a student goes bankrupt. Students will pay their debt one way or another. According to Last Week Tonight, some banks and private loan companies will even take people to court just to get their money back.

Even though this seems bad, something worse has started to be revealed, for profit schools. You may have seen the commercials things like ITT Technical Institute. These schools seem like a good option, but they are statistically worse due to the fact that they cost about twice as much as your average 4 year university. Also, a majority of their funding goes into advertizing and about 10% of their funding goes to their teachers and almost no funding goes back to the student in the form of tuition waivers or scholarships.

One big reason why the schools should not be considered schools is the fact that they prey on low income students by pressuring them to stay in school. Recruiters basically pressure them by saying things like, “I thought you wanted to do something with your life,” if the student wants to back out.

Also, the graduation rates at for profit schools are appalling. The graduation rate at ITT Tech is approximately 20% and in a class of 113 in 2012, only 13 found work in their field.

The nail in the coffin for this is the fact that the programs at these colleges are just horrible. At Corinthian Colleges Inc., their nursing program gives absolutely no in job experience while you are in the program. This means that you don’t go to a hospital or clinic. JUST WHY? WHY WOULD PEOPLE LET THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!

Overall, Higher Education is broken and needs to be fixed. I want to see what you guys think. Do you think state and federal funding for universities should be increased? Do you think that for profit institutions should be dismantled or reworked? Let me know in the comments down below!