This isn’t loot from a robbery, it’s the cost of an education.”  Well, at least he’s not paying in Sacajewea golden dollar coins.

 

As we head into the school year, here’s a good read from the wonder couple at the ZeroPassiveIncome blog .  Nic Ramos, an out-of-state student in Colorado, was just trying to make a statement regarding the increasing cost of a college education.  What you see are dollar bills amounting to $14,300.00.  If RF had those dollar bills ready and available, all splayed on a table, we’d buy all our readers some ice cream.  (But, we suppose, that is part of our problem.)  Peep the video:

(HuffPo article here )

(**BTW, who is that young, silent fellow beside Nic? Is that his legal rep, or something?)

The cost of education has been aggressively rising.  Do any of you remember the 2009 UC tuition hikes?  The increase caused outrage and led to a number of protests across California institutions.  The hike was sudden and ridiculous — a whopping 30% increase — and caused many dear friends of RF grief in the form of overcrowding/cancelled classes, the bureaucratic run-around, or just plain dropping out.

 

The basic issue with tuition is that public education should be accessible to all, as it’s a larger societal investment in our thought-leaders.  In studies exploring the relationship between education and overall societal benefits – not a bad thing can be reported.  And if you look for any case study involving the social benefits of subsidized educational costs in the Scandinavian countries through their social security net features, you’re gonna wanna move to Denmark/Norway ASAP.

 

The point is, should tuition rise, the government should subsidize costs via federal funding to institutions ensuring the average student can still enroll and get their learn on.  Given the manner in which the current national budget is divided, the $38 billion spent on financial aid and subsidies is a small lawn gnome compared to the $800 billion spent on National Defense when we’re talking about the landscape of American life.  PS: “National Defense” includes a good $14 million in camouflage technology – the development of new camo patterns for military unifroms – said an RF insider.  Fair warning to ridiculous!

 

This past June 2011, the UC Board approved another round of tuition hikes.  This is very telling.  Once we set the precedent that the onus of educational costs fall squarely on students, the primary focus on higher learning shifts, and the educational system becomes a business as a business, is justified.  Unfortunately, since the UC/Cal system is one of the largest public school systems in the country, many other states have followed suit: instead of demanding a higher allocation in federal funding, the brunt of the tuition gap has fallen on students.

 

BONUS:  See the national debt stacked in Benjamins!

 

What are your thoughts on the state of higher education in the U.S.?

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