The Guardian: 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income

[ReimTime]

outlawauron said:

Augen said:

The cost of education significantly increased over the past twenty years.  So, making the same good or bad decisions do have very different consequences for people.

For example, my university tuition in 1996 was $2K/semester, when I attended in 2006 it was $4K/semester, and now in 2016 it is $6K/semester.  Given most people take 8 semesters that means same degree went from $16K to $32K to $48K to achieve.  This isn't unusual as national average increase over past twenty years is a 179% increase.

I agree to an extent that we may need a generation that rethinks university and less people go as cost/benefit has changed so much from a generation ago and those that go have a good idea what degree and field they want in.  May not be bad for many 18 year olds to spend some time working to build up a bit of money and learn more about what they want to do in life before comitting to higher education.

Part of that is that education has become an arms race for the best teachers, facilities, and programs. With so much competition from other schools and students having so many options, the costs have skyrocketed as well. One of the many facets as to why cost of education has increased so much.

That and, to copy myself from a post above,  how Administrators and other higher ups - when making budget cuts - seem to turn their attention to cutting school funding or nickeling and diming through parking passes etc instead of taking a cut to their own salary. At least that is the way it seems to me.

Continually they'll chip a way at funding and let students foot the bill, because they know we don't have much of a choice if we want a post-secondary education. Textbooks, parking passes, student association fees etc etc. In German public schools students (including foreign) pay ~$200 a semester as a total all-encompassing fee and have a city-wide bus pass thrown in.

So ridiculous