I, and most of my children, got through college before the huge inflation of tuition costs. This is a huge problem, albeit one that any reasonable person should have seen coming.
it's not just 4-year colleges, either; huge tuition increases for technical schools are the norm. And every time big money is involved, scammers show up. Hence the great increase of for-profit colleges, many poorly accredited or not accredited at all. Our current education secretary was involved in one of those scams, in which she convinced the state of Michigan to go with her new ideas.
She made Detroit schools worse. That's right; her company made them
worse. Not surprisingly, when she got to be education secretary, she didn't forget where she came from...
Investigations Into For-Profit College Abuses Dismantled Under Betsy DeVos
May 15, 2018 update: Newly released documents obtained by Democracy Now suggest that former for-profit college official Robert Eitel -- now senior advisor to Education Department Secretary Betsy DeVos -- played a direct role in rolling back a rule designed to protect students defrauded by Eitel's former institution and other for-profit colleges. Eitel formerly worked for Bridgepoint Education, which in 2016 had to pay back tens of millions of dollars to students who were victims of deceptive loan practices. The documents appear to contradict the Education Department's assertion that former for-profit college officials hired by DeVos for top positions have not influenced department policy.
The Department of Education “has effectively killed investigations” into possible fraud at several prominent for-profit colleges, according to the New York Times.
These for-profit colleges, the paper reported, are places where the leading hires of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos used to work.
Investigators at a special team at the Education Department have been reassigned, sidelined or told to concentrate on other work, current and former employees told the Times. The department has been whittled down from more than a dozen to just three people, who have been assigned to paperwork regarding student loan forgiveness.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianah...gated-for-profit-college-abuses/#7b1a4d57ce0a
After WWII, a greatful America provided college at very low prices to the young men coming home. The result? An economy that boomed as they graduated and moved into jobs.
Now we're reversing the process. Not a smart move.
We need something like the GI Bill. Maybe four years of service in uniform, rebuilding infrastructure, in return for college tuition.
If not, we can look forward to continued decline and companies like those DeVoss is backing to continue to defraud students trying to get an education.