Good Morning Visionaries,<div><br></div><div>Since I started teaching at the UI in 1972, tuition has risen 1,100 plus percent. I have the exact amount over 1,100 somewhere in my files. In stark contrast appropriations for higher ed have dropped from about 20 percent of the budget to about 10 percent.</div>
<div><br></div><div>For the 21st Century the rest of the industrialized world will leave us in the dust in most areas, except for defense spending per capita.</div><div><br></div><div>I weep for America,</div><div><br></div>
<div>Nick<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 5:22 AM, Art Deco <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/nytlogo153x23.gif" alt="The New York Times" align="left" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0"></a>
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<div>March 8, 2013</div>
<h1>A Dangerous ‘New Normal’ in College Debt</h1>
<h6>By
<span><span>CHARLES M. BLOW</span></span></h6>
<div>
<p>
We are reaching a crisis point in this country’s higher education system. </p>
<p>
As college tuitions rise and state and local funding for higher
education falls — along with median household incomes — students are
taking on staggering levels of debt. And many can’t find jobs that pay
well enough to quickly pay off the debt. This has long-term implications
for our society and our economy, as that debt begins to affect when and
if young people start families or enter the housing market. </p>
<p>
The student debt crisis may become a dangerous “new normal,” according to a <a href="http://www.sheeo.org/sites/default/files/publications/SHEF-FY12.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> this week by the nonprofit State Higher Education Executive Officers Association: </p>
<p>
“In the ‘new normal,’ retirement and health care costs simultaneously
drive up the cost of higher education, and compete with education for
limited public resources. The ‘new normal’ no longer expects to see a
recovery of state support for higher education such as occurred
repeatedly in the last half of the 20th century. The ‘new normal’
expects students and their families to continue to make increasingly
greater financial sacrifices in order to complete a postsecondary
education. The ‘new normal’ expects schools and colleges to find ways of
increasing productivity and absorb ever-larger budget cuts, while
increasing degree production without, we hope, compromising quality.”
</p>
<p>
In constant dollars, state and local educational appropriations per
full-time student reached their high in 2001, at $8,670. In 2012, those
appropriations fell by nearly one third, to just $5,896. </p>
<p>
The cost of tuition, on the other hand, has increased dramatically. According to a September <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/17/pf/college/college-costs-obama/index.html" target="_blank">report by CNN Money</a>:
“Over the past decade, average annual tuition for a year of community
college has risen 40 percent to $3,122, according to the College Board, a
nonprofit group that runs the SAT exam. At four-year public
universities, the cost has risen 68 percent to $7,692 a year.” </p>
<p>
Meanwhile, a <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf" target="_blank">September Census report</a>
shows, median household incomes fell by nearly 7 percent from 2001 to
2011. And there are now more Americans living in poverty than at any
time since record-keeping began more than half a century ago. </p>
<p>
This confluence of trends has led to higher borrowing by students. </p>
<p>
An <a href="http://www.newyorkfed.org/newsevents/mediaadvisory/2013/Lee022813.pdf" target="_blank">analysis</a>
last month by Donghoon Lee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York, found that “student debt is the only kind of household debt
that continued to rise through the Great Recession” and is now the
“second largest balance after mortgage debt.” </p>
<p>
According to Mr. Lee, student loan debt is fast approaching a trillion
dollars, up from less than $400 billion in 2004, and both the number of
borrowers and the average balance per borrower have “increased by 70
percent between 2004 and 2012 (7 percent per year).”A September <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/09/26/a-record-one-in-five-households-now-owe-student-loan-debt/" target="_blank">Pew Research Center report</a> found that “a record one-in-five households now owe student loan debt.” </p>
<p>
That report also found that student loan debt as a share of household
income was 24 percent for families in the lowest income quintile. That
was at least twice the share of any other quintile. </p>
<p>
As the report put it, “The relative burden of student loan debt is
greatest for households in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum, even
though members of such households are less likely than those in other
groups to attend college in the first place.” </p>
<p>
And many of those graduates can’t find work or are underemployed, and
they struggle to pay back their own personal mountain of debt. </p>
<p>
A <a href="http://centerforcollegeaffordability.org/uploads/Underemployed&" target="_blank">January report</a>
from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity found that
“about 48 percent of employed U.S. college graduates are in jobs that
the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests requires less than a four-year
college education.” That number included 37 percent in occupations
requiring no more than a high school diploma. </p>
<p>
For example, the report pointed out that “in 1970, fewer than 1 percent
of taxi drivers and 2 percent of firefighters had college degrees, while
now more than 15 percent do in both jobs.” </p>
<p>
And yet, this country needs a more knowledgeable work force to be
competitive. While the number of college graduates in America is
increasing, that number is growing even faster in some other countries.
And, as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development noted
in 2011, “The U.S. is the only country where attainment levels among
those just entering the labor market (25- to 34-year-olds) do not exceed
those about to leave the labor market (55- to 64-year-olds).” </p>
<p>
Our national educational aspirations and the debt crisis that they’re
creating are colliding. We are on an unsustainable track. This will not
end well. </p>
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<p style="text-align:center">•</p>
<p>I invite you to join me on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/CharlesMBlow" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and follow me on <a href="http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, or e-mail me at <a href="mailto:chblow@nytimes.com" target="_blank">chblow@nytimes.com</a>.</p>
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<div><div><div><br style="clear:both"></div></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br>
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