College and Tuition
College Education
College education is a highly talked about subject among the presidents. For many years college education was not highly sought after or looked for, then when people who did go to college started getting better paying jobs than everyone else more and more people started to go to college. Since college is such a hot commodity these days the price of a college education is on a steady rise. Some experts have a very strong opinion as to why college education is on a rise and some believe that that it is not on the rise. To begin to understand this issue, we have to first examine the history and the context from which it arose. The rise of tuition is mainly due in part because the colleges need more money to upgrade and stay on top of the technology era. There are also many other reasons why tuition is on the rise though. One writer states that, "As almost every state reels from the effects of recession and tax cuts, legislatures slash funding for higher education, the largest discretionary item in most state budgets." (Reed Jr., p.25). Another writer states, "A need to improve facilities, state budgets that are declining and inflation are all contributing to the rising cost of higher education, and there appears to be no end in sight." (Gallagher, The Augusta Chronicle). This same writer gives another reason, "Universities, private and public, have to raise tuition to cover the costs of new construction, renovations and technological advancements and to keep qualified professors." (The Augusta Chronicle). All of these statements show that there are many reasons why college tuition is on the rise, but they don 't seem to make sense to me. There should be other ways that colleges are able to pay for these advances in technology and inflation besides just hiking up the tuition cost. The tuition cost is so high that they have plenty of money to pay for all of the technological advances that they want and still have money left over for
College education is a highly talked about subject among the presidents. For many years college education was not highly sought after or looked for, then when people who did go to college started getting better paying jobs than everyone else more and more people started to go to college. Since college is such a hot commodity these days the price of a college education is on a steady rise. Some experts have a very strong opinion as to why college education is on a rise and some believe that that it is not on the rise. To begin to understand this issue, we have to first examine the history and the context from which it arose. The rise of tuition is mainly due in part because the colleges need more money to upgrade and stay on top of the technology era. There are also many other reasons why tuition is on the rise though. One writer states that, "As almost every state reels from the effects of recession and tax cuts, legislatures slash funding for higher education, the largest discretionary item in most state budgets." (Reed Jr., p.25). Another writer states, "A need to improve facilities, state budgets that are declining and inflation are all contributing to the rising cost of higher education, and there appears to be no end in sight." (Gallagher, The Augusta Chronicle). This same writer gives another reason, "Universities, private and public, have to raise tuition to cover the costs of new construction, renovations and technological advancements and to keep qualified professors." (The Augusta Chronicle). All of these statements show that there are many reasons why college tuition is on the rise, but they don 't seem to make sense to me. There should be other ways that colleges are able to pay for these advances in technology and inflation besides just hiking up the tuition cost. The tuition cost is so high that they have plenty of money to pay for all of the technological advances that they want and still have money left over for
Cited: 1) Reed Jr., Adolph L. Majoring in Debt. Progressive; Jan 2004, Vol. 68 Issue 1, p 25, 3p, 2bw. 2) Gallagher, James. College Costs Continue to Rise Sharply. The (GA) Augusta Chronicle; 5/30/2004. 3) USA Today. Learn about ways to pay college tuition. Sep. 14, 2004. 4) Hempel, Jessi. College Tuition? Gumption Won 't Cover It. Business Week, 5/31/2004, Issue 3885. 5) http://studentloan.citibank.com/slcsite/slcframeset.htm. Citicorp. Oct. 26, 2004. 6) The Washington Post. Textbook Prices On the Rise. Sep. 18, 2004. 7) Stern, Linda. Congrats!—Now Pay Up. Newsweek, 4/12/2004, Vol. 143, Issue 15. 8) Ewers, Justin and Kingsbury, Alex. Opening the College Gates. 9) Bodnar, Janet. Who pays for COLLEGE? 10) Meyer, Michelle M. Tuition fees don 't tell whole truth.