In case anyone needed additional information to counter the Brookings-fed meme that “Americans who borrowed to finance their education are no worse off today than they were a generation ago”, theU.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report yesterday with some significant findings. As reported at Inside Higher Ed by Michael Stratford: More than 700,000 […]
student debt
Brookings Institution analysis on student debt becoming a farce
I have previously written about the deeply flawed Brookings Institution analysis on student debt with its oft-repeated lede: These data indicate that typical borrowers are no worse off now than they were a generation ago … Their data is based on the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) by the Federal Reserve Board, with the report […]
Federal Reserve Board backs up e-Literate in criticism of Brookings report on student debt
I have been very critical of the Brookings Institution report on student debt, particularly in my post “To see how illogical the Brookings Institution report on student loans is, just read the executive summary”. D’oh! It turns out that real borrowers with real tax brackets paying off off real loans are having real problems. The […]
To see how illogical the Brookings Institution report on student loans is, just read the executive summary
il·log·i·cal i(l)ˈläjikəl/ adjective lacking sense or clear, sound reasoning. ((From Google’s definition)) There have been multiple articles both accepting the Brookings argument that “typical borrowers are no worse off now than they were a generation ago” and those calling out the flaws in the Brookings report. I have written two articles here and here criticizing the […]
A response to Bloomberg article on UCLA student fees
Megan McArdle has an article that was published in Bloomberg this week about the growth of student fees. The setup of the article was based on a new “$4 student fee to pay for better concerts”. To solve this problem, UCLA is introducing a $4 student fee to pay for better concerts. That illuminates a […]
The Rising Non-Instructional Cost of College Exemplified By University of Minnesota
This past weekend the Wall Street Journal published an insightful article on administrative bloat at the University of Minnesota and how it typifies a major problem relating to rising tuition and student debt. The article is heavily based on the new president of the university, Eric Kaler, and his attempts to address rising costs. Unfortunately […]
Postscript to “This Time Is Different: Enrollment and Employment Divergence”
In a post two days ago, I showed US data comparing enrollment and employment trends. The salient feature of the data that I called out was the significant divergence of the two trend lines since 2006. When you look at the data from 1970 – 2012, the results could explain some significant pressures experienced by higher […]