5 ms·

Who got rich off the student debt crisis? [Investigative Piece]

11 points by hollaur 10y ago

Fej 10y ago
Students aren't the only casualties. Universities used to be (a while ago) places for enlightenment, learning for the sake of enhancing one's life, not just for teaching skills. Now they are almost exclusively for vocational training, and bettering the self, debating ideas, pushing discourse forward - it's all by the wayside except for the highest-level institutions. Where does discourse go when academia becomes a business?
- ben_jones 10y ago
  According to an Ethics Professor at the University I went to, which was a large public university that charges very high tuition rates, the school on average LOST money per student, and instead broke even through various other forms of revenue. Tuition rates are inversely related to state funding of higher education, suggesting that it is entirely the loan providers, local businesses, and real estate managers, who profit off of students and their parents. That's my 2 cents at least.
  - michaelbuddy 10y ago
    Plenty of schools make money. Problem is they are constantly on a hyper growth track. The current way of doing things is unsustainable for students. And frankly instead of introducing young adults to the real world, they are doing a terrible job by shielding them from it until the kids find out they're in debt big time for the next decade.
- michaelbuddy 10y ago
  discussing ideas doesn't put food on the table. Managers dont' want to hire enlightened people who have never gotten their hands dirty, or who think certain work is beneath them. If you want a place of enlightenment, you can't charge so much and lock people into it.
  - emp_zealoth 10y ago
    I don't see why it has to be either - or situation (enlightened vs practical work) And hiring only mindless drones or software "engineers" that are just capable of cobbbling together some frameworks and make a text-and-pictures website that takes more RAM to use than a fucking CAD design suite or AAA game
jkot 10y ago
I find it funny that university protects students from everything even remotely triggering. But on other side it exploits them with debt.
- elgabogringo 10y ago
  Is that a bug or a feature?
elgabogringo 10y ago
Just like government sponsored enterprises (GSE's) made housing more expensive, they are making college tuition more expensive. Left out of the article are probably biggest recipients of the newfound largesse are University administrative employees whose employment "jumped 60 percent from 1993 to 2009, 10 times the growth rate for tenured faculty"[1] In my opinion they are not just overemployed but overpaid. Also left out are the billion dollar endowments that can generation over a billion in annual gains - all untaxed because the schools are "non-profits." It's strange that these points are left out. Also strange is the bias in the article, where Republicans are at fault for everything and it's just the poor old Democrats left standing up for students when the reality is that student loan debt took off under Obama [2] This is a serious, bipartisan issue. It's a classic case of special interests, wall street, and politicians colluding to rip off Americans. This article is biased and does a poor job identifying root causes for the crisis. Still, it's a subject worth discussing. [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-troubling-dean-to-professor-ratio http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-troubl... [2] http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/1278591-14133988994203806-Thomas-Hughes.png http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/127859...
- DefaultUserHN 10y ago
  Even Trump is against the government profiting off of student loans. >Donald Trump... on Thursday criticized the federal government for earning a profit on the federal student loan program. >“I’ll see so many young people and they work really hard for four years,” Trump told the newspaper. “They borrowed money. Their parents don’t have much. They work all together and they mortgage their future.” >“That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off -- I think it’s terrible...” Trump said in an interview with The Hill. Source: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-federal-government-making-money-on-student-loans http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-federa...
Overtonwindow 10y ago
There's a fallacy here that I wish more reporters covered on the student loan crisis. Why did this student go to such an expensive school if all she wanted to do was join the Marshal Service? I feel like we do a disservice to the debate when we don't point out the mistakes students make in not only a) taking on massive amounts of debt, but also b) in their own poor decisions in choosing where to go to school, what to study, and not finishing.

11 points by hollaur 10y ago

Fej 10y ago

Students aren't the only casualties. Universities used to be (a while ago) places for enlightenment, learning for the sake of enhancing one's life, not just for teaching skills. Now they are almost exclusively for vocational training, and bettering the self, debating ideas, pushing discourse forward - it's all by the wayside except for the highest-level institutions. Where does discourse go when academia becomes a business?

ben_jones 10y ago
According to an Ethics Professor at the University I went to, which was a large public university that charges very high tuition rates, the school on average LOST money per student, and instead broke even through various other forms of revenue. Tuition rates are inversely related to state funding of higher education, suggesting that it is entirely the loan providers, local businesses, and real estate managers, who profit off of students and their parents. That's my 2 cents at least.
- michaelbuddy 10y ago
  Plenty of schools make money. Problem is they are constantly on a hyper growth track. The current way of doing things is unsustainable for students. And frankly instead of introducing young adults to the real world, they are doing a terrible job by shielding them from it until the kids find out they're in debt big time for the next decade.
michaelbuddy 10y ago
discussing ideas doesn't put food on the table. Managers dont' want to hire enlightened people who have never gotten their hands dirty, or who think certain work is beneath them. If you want a place of enlightenment, you can't charge so much and lock people into it.
- emp_zealoth 10y ago
  I don't see why it has to be either - or situation (enlightened vs practical work) And hiring only mindless drones or software "engineers" that are just capable of cobbbling together some frameworks and make a text-and-pictures website that takes more RAM to use than a fucking CAD design suite or AAA game

jkot 10y ago

I find it funny that university protects students from everything even remotely triggering. But on other side it exploits them with debt.

elgabogringo 10y ago
Is that a bug or a feature?

elgabogringo 10y ago

Just like government sponsored enterprises (GSE's) made housing more expensive, they are making college tuition more expensive. Left out of the article are probably biggest recipients of the newfound largesse are University administrative employees whose employment "jumped 60 percent from 1993 to 2009, 10 times the growth rate for tenured faculty"[1] In my opinion they are not just overemployed but overpaid. Also left out are the billion dollar endowments that can generation over a billion in annual gains - all untaxed because the schools are "non-profits." It's strange that these points are left out. Also strange is the bias in the article, where Republicans are at fault for everything and it's just the poor old Democrats left standing up for students when the reality is that student loan debt took off under Obama [2] This is a serious, bipartisan issue. It's a classic case of special interests, wall street, and politicians colluding to rip off Americans. This article is biased and does a poor job identifying root causes for the crisis. Still, it's a subject worth discussing. [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-troubling-dean-to-professor-ratio http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-troubl... [2] http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/1278591-14133988994203806-Thomas-Hughes.png http://static.cdn-seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/127859...

DefaultUserHN 10y ago
Even Trump is against the government profiting off of student loans. >Donald Trump... on Thursday criticized the federal government for earning a profit on the federal student loan program. >“I’ll see so many young people and they work really hard for four years,” Trump told the newspaper. “They borrowed money. Their parents don’t have much. They work all together and they mortgage their future.” >“That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off -- I think it’s terrible...” Trump said in an interview with The Hill. Source: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-federal-government-making-money-on-student-loans http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-federa...

Overtonwindow 10y ago

There's a fallacy here that I wish more reporters covered on the student loan crisis. Why did this student go to such an expensive school if all she wanted to do was join the Marshal Service? I feel like we do a disservice to the debate when we don't point out the mistakes students make in not only a) taking on massive amounts of debt, but also b) in their own poor decisions in choosing where to go to school, what to study, and not finishing.