3 ms·

> US education and research is still one of our strong points, drawing in the brightest minds from the entire world. The Average Joe graduates with enormous st

> US education and research is still one of our strong points, drawing in the brightest minds from the entire world. The Average Joe graduates with enormous student debt and ends up in a low paying job, one that's entirely unrelated to their degree. They never experienced the benefits of education nor research. In fact, they feel quite ripped off by the whole affair, so this point holds no stock for them. > So... Burn down academia with no replacement? Shutter and board research and leave America with no future? This is a bit of a hysterical reaction to "budget cuts." Academia isn't going anywhere and probably won't change much, it's just going to have less money. In fact, k-12 education is seeing far more severe budget cuts as part of the bill, but there are fewer prophecies of doom in its honor. Academics argue passionately for their own bread, but not for those who are starving. (They also send their kids to private school)

maxerickson 1y ago
Median student loan debt is about $25,000 dollars. That's a lot, but not so much that it wouldn't be covered by a very modest increase in lifetime earnings. The mean is closer to $40,000, which is still going to be covered by a modest improvement in earnings. I think we should be working on changing things so that students graduate with less debt, and working on ensuring that time spent studying is worthwhile to the individual, but it's weird to treat extreme cases as if they are universal.
- disambiguation 1y ago
  Your math is incomplete. The whole formula includes interest rates and total amortized cost as well as the average / median income, cost of living, time to employment, and employment rates of new graduates. Additional exercises for the reader: find the average TTL of full loan repayment (~20 years) and the percent of graduates where debt exceeds earnings (~20%). This isn't to say that degree attainment isn't statistically better on average, much like paying off ransomware. The price of tuition seems to reflect the lack of reasonable alternatives more than the intrinsic value of the education.
Tadpole9181 1y ago
> The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) froze all outgoing funding, including new awards and scheduled payments on active grants. Over 1,000 NSF research projects were abruptly canceled in a few days, resulting in roughly $739 million in halted research funding. The directive, issued with little explanation, has created chaos across the academic research ecosystem, part of a broader trend Nature described as an unprecedented assault. Just normal budget cuts. Everyone, close your eyes and don't look at Columbia or Harvard or refusing foreign students (and requiring loyalty to the administration in your social media to be admitted) or deporting dissidents (now to South Sudan!) And completely ignore that people are actively upset about the cuts to K-12, because it's not the focus of an article specifically about higher education. It's not like one of the top posts on HN when it happened was the announcement of killing the Department of Education. Or that the same people upset about the gutting higher education are upset about the voucher program designed to funnel taxpayer money to private and religious institutions while destroying the quality public education, furthering evermore the wealth gap. You may even be shocked to find out that I also care about children and think they have an intrinsic right to food and that school lunches should be free and nutritious and tasty. If I don't include that in a footer on every post, will you accuse me of siding with Republicans - the party whose currently saying kids should get jobs while in primary school to pay for their food needs? Utterly ridiculous and offensive. ---- Someone already covered the prices thing.

maxerickson 1y ago

Median student loan debt is about $25,000 dollars. That's a lot, but not so much that it wouldn't be covered by a very modest increase in lifetime earnings. The mean is closer to $40,000, which is still going to be covered by a modest improvement in earnings. I think we should be working on changing things so that students graduate with less debt, and working on ensuring that time spent studying is worthwhile to the individual, but it's weird to treat extreme cases as if they are universal.

disambiguation 1y ago
Your math is incomplete. The whole formula includes interest rates and total amortized cost as well as the average / median income, cost of living, time to employment, and employment rates of new graduates. Additional exercises for the reader: find the average TTL of full loan repayment (~20 years) and the percent of graduates where debt exceeds earnings (~20%). This isn't to say that degree attainment isn't statistically better on average, much like paying off ransomware. The price of tuition seems to reflect the lack of reasonable alternatives more than the intrinsic value of the education.

Tadpole9181 1y ago

> The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) froze all outgoing funding, including new awards and scheduled payments on active grants. Over 1,000 NSF research projects were abruptly canceled in a few days, resulting in roughly $739 million in halted research funding. The directive, issued with little explanation, has created chaos across the academic research ecosystem, part of a broader trend Nature described as an unprecedented assault. Just normal budget cuts. Everyone, close your eyes and don't look at Columbia or Harvard or refusing foreign students (and requiring loyalty to the administration in your social media to be admitted) or deporting dissidents (now to South Sudan!) And completely ignore that people are actively upset about the cuts to K-12, because it's not the focus of an article specifically about higher education. It's not like one of the top posts on HN when it happened was the announcement of killing the Department of Education. Or that the same people upset about the gutting higher education are upset about the voucher program designed to funnel taxpayer money to private and religious institutions while destroying the quality public education, furthering evermore the wealth gap. You may even be shocked to find out that I also care about children and think they have an intrinsic right to food and that school lunches should be free and nutritious and tasty. If I don't include that in a footer on every post, will you accuse me of siding with Republicans - the party whose currently saying kids should get jobs while in primary school to pay for their food needs? Utterly ridiculous and offensive. ---- Someone already covered the prices thing.