Thanks to Isaiah Corbin for passing along this link:
http://dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=696
Warning: this is a clear-eyed appraisal of the costs this generation of college students is bearing so that they will not be destined to live their entire lives in Fishtown.
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In the article Malcolm Harris is quoted as saying, "But the rapid growth in tuition is mystifying in value terms; no one could argue convincingly the quality of instruction or the market value of a degree has increased ten-fold in the past four decades (though this hasn’t stopped some from trying). So why would universities raise tuition so high so quickly?" I think that the United State's constantly evolving society has caused these tremendous increases in tuition. Four decades ago technology and competition were no where near what they are today. Many students could graduate from high school and transition right into the work force. Today if you expect to get a decent paying job you cannot come straight out of high school. Employers are not going to higher people out of high school when they can now choose from a pool of college graduates. Not only that, but so many of todays jobs require skills taught at college. Many of those skills involving education in technology. High school students know that they need a college education to be qualified for many of the jobs in todays workplace. Students are not the only ones that know they need an education, the universities know that students need it as well. I think that is why colleges have increased their tuition at such an incredible rate, because they know that high school students are going to keep paying so that they can compete for jobs. The quality of education probably has not increased at the rate that tuition would imply, but I would agree that the market value of a college degree most certainly has increased; however, not at the 900% rate that tuition has increased over the same span.
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