In the 2012 campaign, President Obama promised to work
tirelessly to cut the growth of college costs in half during the next ten
years. Perhaps he hoped his audience
would only hear, “I promise to blah-blah cut college costs blah-blah in half.” Nope.
He was only pledging to cut the “growth”. Between 2003 and 2013 college tuition grew at
almost 80%. So this presidential promise
(out six years beyond his impeach-by date, mind you) was to work a Washington
miracle and cut the growth in tuition to 40%.
That’s like JFK vowing to get us half-way to the moon (sometime
soon). Oh, and by the way, the cost of
textbooks has increased at almost the same rate—nearly double the rate of
growth for health care costs. Got to go write
me one of them there textbooks.
As a parent of a college student, the President’s promise
hit me like a puck to the pocket. But I
searched and Googled to no avail. I
couldn’t find anyone that had commented on this pathetic response to a very
real problem facing the beleaguered and beloved middle class. Then I looked at the proposal with the
liberal mind-set. If the Education
Department budget grew 10% in fiscal 2006 but only 9% in fiscal 2007, George
Bush had actually CUT the education budget, insuring the nation would produce generations
of dolts for years to come. So by
promising to cut the rate of growth in half, President Obama was being more
than ambitious; he was being, as usual, audacious.
College debt is devastating for today’s graduating
classes. But excusing the debt is not
the answer. A lunch you don’t pay for is
rarely free. A house that you don’t pay for is rarely maintained. An education you don’t pay for is hardly
worth it. And student debt is not the
only problem.
Most parents I know don’t want to see their kids in deep
debt-debt at 23. So they look for other
ways to cut college costs. One
attractive avenue is the athletic scholarship.
For a young woman who likes soccer or softball or volleyball, it’s a
great opportunity. But just like with
academics, the competition for the athletic scholarship is getting fierce. Enter professional coaches, year-round
training and performance enhancing drugs.
We may not be raising dolts, but we will soon have a generation of women
without any cartilage in their knees.
Now, here come the anecdotes, so be careful. I know parents of high school water polo
players who have spent more time in emergency rooms than by the pool as their
sons are treated for concussions, severe trauma, and underwater abuse to their
private parts—all part of a compelling desire to win and get noticed by college
scouts. I know hockey moms who have been
rehabbing multiple knees on multiple sons.
No one talks about “Roid Rage” any more but I have to think something
chemical is causing normal sporting competition to become cut-throat. And it isn’t only athletics. I know parents who pushed their son so
relentlessly to become a virtuoso and win a college band scholarship, he ended
up leaving school and hating both the French horn and his parents.
So where is all this money going? I will say that the amenities on my son’s
campus are quite nice. The University of
Quantitative Easing is, at least, putting my hard earned poem payments into new
dormitories with clothes dryers that send out a text message when the cool-down
cycle is done. The furniture in Room 585
is new and clean. After I left college
it was discovered that what I had been sleeping on was actually a pre-Columbian
artifact.
I am not sure how to solve this problem. But I do know that cutting the rate of growth
in half is silly. If the Republicans
want to meet their constituents where they live and learn, this is an issue
they should be looking at.
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