Education Costs in Perspective
Justin Bathon on Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:00AM ;)
Niraj Chokshi: The AtlanticThere's a scary chart. The inflation in the price of education has consistently outpaced inflation in the medical world and, of course, inflation itself.
Now, I am sure the numbers can be argued (although they are from the Department of Labor), but that's not the point. We all know the cost of a college education is rising substantially. The question is what impact will this have, and, as Niraj Chokshi asked, "Could education be our next health-care crisis?"
My answer is that we are already in a crisis, and have been for a while. Worst yet, the crisis is silent in that it doesn't wind up with someone dead in a hospital, but rather someone taking subsidized housing, or working three jobs, or ... going without health insurance. Yes, more students are going to college than ever before, but they are also taking bigger risks than ever before as the debt load on the students and their parents rise. Many Americans had trouble paying their mortgage because their son or daughter was in college, for instance. Further, our economic output is directly tied to our educational attainment, and so it is impossible to separate economic crises from educational crises. But, it is the acknowledgement among non-educators that is lacking. If changing healthcare is like grabbing the third rail for a politician, then messing with education is like standing in front of the train. No one wants to acknowledge the serious concerns facing education because no one actually wants to deal with them. But, our country's economic security depends much more heavily on controlling educational costs than it does on controlling health-care costs.
Reader Comments (1)
Great post, Justin. I'll be passing this along to other educators.