The Education Bubble

I made this video on May 4th, 2006. That's right! I coined the phrase, "education bubble." Now, everybody and their mom talks about the education bubble.


What do you want to be when you grow up? You are going to be an indentured servant to the education-industrial complex. A true conspiracy took your family's life's savings in exchange for a piece of paper that is rapidly depreciating. Oh well, there's always graduate school.

Text:

From the 1950s until 1991, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Yale formed the Overlap Group, through which they shared data on applicants. This allowed them to artificially inflate tuition and eliminate merit-based financial aid by circumventing competition. A Dartmouth official said that had it not followed the Overlap Group, "we would effectively be out of the Ivy League, and this would have a serious impact on our applicant pool."

Thus, tuition rises.
Forty-seven universities have built billion-dollar endowments, while doubling their average tuition from 1995 to 2005. The average US public college tuition rose 35% between 2001 and 2006, while private college tuition rose 11%. Instruction has only received 21% of inflation-adjusted college spending per student since 1976. Overall, only Switzerland spends more per student from elementary school through college than the US. Although 97% of Americans with children expect their eldest to attend college, 26% have less than $5000 saved for this. Hence, half of college graduates spend 8% of their income on student loans. Those with graduate degrees spend 13.5%. To make matters worse, college graduates' real incomes fell 5.2% from 2000 to 2004, as high school graduates' incomes rose 1.6%. Now, only 44% of parents think the value of a college education is worth the cost. As a matter of fact, a 1999 study found no income difference between graduates of selective universities and those who won acceptance to comparable schools but chose less-selective ones.

In 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled in Griggs versus Duke Power Co. to forbid general intelligence tests in employment because they create racial "disparate impact." So, educational credentials have served as a mark of intellectual competence. However, employers have reason to doubt this conceit.

SAT scores peaked in 1964. Twenty-two percent of college freshmen need high school-level math. From 1995 to 2005, reading proficiency among Americans with graduate degrees declined from 51% to 41%. A 2006 study found that 20% of students pursuing 4-year degrees had only basic quantitative skills, and half could not perform complex literacy tasks. In the early 1960s, the average college student completed 60 hours of schoolwork per week. In 2003, only 33% of freshman reported 6 or more hours per week. Those doing less than one hour per week doubled over 16 years to 16%. Meanwhile, 47% receive A average grades, compared to 18% in 1968.

Such dubious currency at such a steep cost has yet to impact the plentiful supply. In 1950, 6% of Americans had a college degree. In 2005, 28% had one. The master's degree is the fastest growing, with a 19% increase from 1996 to 2002.

In the words of Dr. Mark Edmundson of the University of Virginia, "It is probably time now to offer a spate of inspiring solutions. . . . Perhaps it would be a good idea to try firing the counselors and sending half the deans back into their classrooms, dismantling the football team and making the stadium into a playground for local kids, emptying the fraternities, and boarding up the student-activities office. Such measures would convey the message that American colleges are not the northern outposts of Club Med."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• education
• bubble
• race
• intelligence
• iq
• college
• university
• higher
• tuition
• ivy
• league
• financial
• aid
• loan
• scholarship
• overlap
• group
• affirmative
• action
• merit
• debt

[thomasjrbg]

this music sux ... and by the way, you weren't the first to say education bubble ... wow

[n00ffensebut]

@thomasjrbg

I recently learned that one person used the term prior to me. I am the second person to independently apply it to this issue. So what?

[jjcale1111]

Are you also a supporter of Dr Paul?

I think cutting off student loan funding is a good idea. I paid my way for all my degrees.... and I am still using them 15 years later... unlike many others who had an easier route.

Anyway, I meant to ask ask you what you make of the recent press reports that show IQ fluctuating among a group of teenagers in a study?... sorry I dont have a link but I figure you know what I am referring to.

[n00ffensebut]

@jjcale1111

I would increase merit scholarships, end affirmative action, allow IQ tests in hiring, decrease college amenities, end college sports, lower tuition, and increase academic requirements for admission.

I have the study that you mentioned. I have not read it entirely.  It does not seem surprising. We have known that IQ becomes more genetic with age.

[Willsinger011]

Romney cannot and will not beat Obama. All these candidates are WHACK!!!

[jjcale1111]

@n00ffensebut IMO Romney is a classic "Flawed Candidate"... like Dole and Kerry were. He is plausible but he lacks both charisma and passion.

I am not a fan of university education for most of the population, most cant make full use of it. I prefer the old German system (of up to about 1980) of sending about 10-15% to university but engaging in lifetime upskilling of the entire population. The USA sends an unaffordable number of people to university and will inevitably have to cut back.

[glorp896]

@n00ffensebut the Celtic Tiger is largely sleeping currently, but Ireland was a shining example of lowering taxes and getting growth, but when is enough enough, as in the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few?! despite tech fun and that living standard improvement the classes have become increasingly polarized - much worse than antebellum slavery! (well, at least any black guy can walk away from his wage slave job and check his text messages at the same time these days ;)

[n00ffensebut]

@glorp896

I am not an expert on economics, but I have some thoughts. One, the American 2-party system exaggerates the consequences of tax policy. Two, countries like Singapore keep taxes low and that allows them to grow faster by creating a business-friendly reputation. Three, poor Americans often have access to technology and can download free entertainment and find other ways to consume less. Lastly, the worst aspect of poverty is proximity to other poor people, who are dangerous.

[glorp896]

GEN X has been given this slacker label, young adults living at home longer than ever, having crappy jobs, etc... but Gen X (13th USA generation) is the first historically downwardly mobile generation in our history (born '64-80) all the while we (me, gen xers) had skyrocketing college graduation rates as is outlined in this video - in some sense we really started the trend, all coupled with a post industrial service sector economy that had too many over educated graduates working crappy jobs

[glorp896]

2:32, i VERY seriously doubt this! 60 hours?! maybe in japan, not here! of course this said early 60s when all the kids still looked like their parents before the whole sexual druggie hippie anti-war pot smoking psychedelic thing got going with TUNE IN TURN ON AND DROP OUT... but i really don't believe 60 hours, thats just stupid made up crap... maybe in med school? not just your average basic 4 year degree thing, no way

- BTW, its an honor for me to have been confused as you -GREAT WORK!

[glorp896]

@n00ffensebut i have a YEAH BUT response to that

what about the rich? shouldn't we tax them more? obama is really trying this multiple ways, but of course the repubs are blocking him, just as they kept the minimum wage at $3.35 and then $5.15 FOREVER!

google "who rules america" --- when is enough enough? how do u quantify taxation in terms of justice, morality and what should be... i like the fair tax, but they should AT LEAST double the prebate and STILL keep progressive tax for 1% only