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Yeah, it's because academia has become a for-profit business first, and an educational centre second.

Sounds to me like people are realizing that the price of college isn't worth it. You take on thousands in debt that can't be discharged in bankruptcy, you get a degree that doesn't guarantee a job.

The lie of college for all is only meant to generate profit for schools and lenders.

And don't get me started on textbook scams in college to prohibit used book sales

This country doesn't prioritize education and then we wonder why people like Trump get elected.

Congratulations on pricing people out of a college education, have fun with that.

Don't feel even an ounce of sympathy for these assholes. As someone who works adjacent to academia, we've been talking about the "enrollment cliff" for a few years now. The solution universities have come to is that they should cut admissions requirements to make sure anyone with money can enter their institution, and then do as much creative accounting as necessary to cover up students' failing grades. They'd rather become degree mills than look at the real problem; their tuition costs.

In an ideal world: Oh no! Some of those useless administrators might have to be let go if they aren't getting the tuition or attendance they budgeted for!

In reality: They will cut the music program, funding for clubs or anything else beneficial to students before recognizing the glut of useless admins.

I'm no expert, but I'm having a hard time not thinking this is a recipe for a major generational housing crisis. We're telling kids the "key" to success is getting that fancy college degree, when in reality it's just a bunch of debt and no job prospects.

When are we going to start factoring in the actual cost of a 4-year education? Tuition's through the roof, student loans are suffocating people under 30, and we're telling them "just do it" for the 'sake of their own future'?

And another thing - what's with all this emphasis on getting a "degreed" person out into the workforce? Can't we teach 'em something in high school? Do we really need to be training 20-year-olds to fill up our 40-something year-old retirements?

Higher education is too expensive. Not everyone can afford it. Also, some people can't go to school full time because they need to work. I know some people would say these people should be able to do both, but that doesn't work for everyone. If you're someone who got a degree while working full time, good for you, but I've tried working full time and going to school and I found it to be really difficult. If there comes a point where people decide they have to choose between school and work, well, school is going to lose every time because school doesn't pay the rent.

Wouldnt have anything to do with crippling debt would it?

Hmmm I wonder if this has anything to do with the FUCKING ASTRONOMICAL TUITION

Zoomers are unaliving the college debt industry

The purpose of a system is what it does.

Higher ed as currently constituted keeps young troublemakers distracted during their wild years and then burdens them with long term debt obligations.

Before we began recognizing the humanity of women (and their usefulness in the labor force), the preferred method of social enslavement was early child birth. Student debt seems to be a good replacement as a social control mechanism.

Drop tuition, bitches.

Education to any level should be free at the point of use. Hell I'd even go as far as to say people should be given a (non-means-tested) grant if they go into higher education. We need more smart people.

The more educated & informed a society is, the more productive, safe and free it is. No one should deny themselves the education they otherwise want because they can't afford it.

College makes you think critically. It’s good for society overall when more people go, but college administrators have basically turned these nonprofit organizations into money grubbers that have forsaken their original mission.

The American environment of work is going to get a little wild over the next few years. If your job isn't a blunt necessity like an Arborist, or Fireplace technician or something, I'd consider leaving.

u?

I'm a mechanic. We make our own rules. World goes to shit? Inflation gone insane!? Don't care. Pay up or no car.

"Student loans" are now one of the most ubiquitous phrases in politics and it's synonymous with "a burden you can never escape" so it makes sense that the folks who can use assistance will avoid it. The entire fight about student loans has always been to highlight the cost and make some folks turn away from higher education all together. Education has always been under attack for as long as most of us have been alive and this is another front in the war.

First they attack public education and exhaust teachers with overwork with underpayment. Now the right wants to attack Academia, the source of science which shows how destructive the current system has become and how it will evolve. Elon will probably entirely axe FAFSA and funding for higher education, with the aim to have their endowments fed by wealthy elite who dictate what makes it onto a syllabus. The right is so fucking exhausting.

It's not really concerning when it's just plain impractical to go unless youre pursuing stem.

Colleges are also trying to address this by seriously lowering standards.

One thing I make money doing is essentially getting intellectually disabled people through college. I’m not ragging on my clients, but it’s become very clear to me that universities are less interested in educating these people than they are taking their parent’s money.

I was looking through one of the discussion forums for one of my clients’ English classes and it was genuinely horrifying. I’m talking R1 university, and the majority of the posts were either “AI” generated or were written at a middle school level.

The problem is that with the quality decline of high school education college education has become all but a requirement for white collar jobs. Yes, the skillset you've been taught is going to be painfully out of date, but the fact that you have enough preserverence (and money ) for college means that you at least won't be autofiltered by employers.

Concerning? To whom? The people who profit massively off of students, many of which are going deep into debt?

bad news for democrats and our society at large