Beware subprime college education bubble

George Will:

Tuitions and fees have risen more than 440 percent in 30 years as schools happily raised prices -- and lowered standards -- to siphon up federal money. A recent Wall Street Journal headline: "Student Debt Rises by 8% as College Tuitions Climb."

Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education that as many people -- perhaps more -- have student loan debts as have college degrees.

Have you seen those T-shirts that proclaim "College: The Best Seven Years of My Life"? Twenty-nine percent of borrowers never graduate, and many who do graduate take decades to repay their loans.

In 2010, The New York Times reported on Cortney Munna, then 26, a New York University graduate with almost $100,000 in debt. If her repayments were not then being deferred because she was enrolled in night school, she would have been paying $700 monthly from her $2,300 monthly after-tax income as a photographer's assistant.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 11, 2012 1:45 AM
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