Degrees of Deception: How America’s Universities Became Debt Factories
September 25th, 2024Via: Anand Sanwal:
…there’s a reason this broken system persists.
It’s not just inertia or incompetence.
It’s because there are powerful, entrenched interests that profit handsomely from the status quo. They cloak themselves in the noble rhetoric of education, but their actions tell a different story: skyrocketing tuition, subpar outcomes, and a generation drowning in debt.
It’s not about enlightenment; it’s about enrichment – theirs, not yours.
…
In a normal market, if a product consistently fails to deliver value, consumers stop buying it. Producers either improve or go out of business. But in the world of higher education, this feedback loop is broken.
Colleges and universities, shielded by the guarantee of student loan money, have no real incentive to improve their product or direct students to majors that have an ability to pay back their loans.
They can raise tuition year after year, even as the value of their degrees stagnates or declines.
They can offer degrees with poor job prospects knowing that students will still come—and still be able to borrow.
