According to the Education Data Initiative’s 2022 “Average Cost of College & Tuition” report, the average annual cost of a student attending a four-year college is $35,331 (including books, supplies, and living expenses). Even a typical student attending her four-year public college in the state pays over $25,000 a year. Community colleges are less expensive, but average student costs total $7,460, or $1,865 per semester.

Over the past 20 years, the average cost of college has more than doubled. A student can expect to spend an average of over $200,000 for law school or medical school, her $100,000 for her PhD, and well over her $60,000 for her master’s degree in addition to what she spends on her undergraduate program. .

Student debt is an unsustainable problem

The student loan problem is not a left-right problem. The Left may have the wrong answer on how to deal with it. Their answer is to provide debt “forgiveness” and “free” college for all. This means imposing an incredibly exorbitant charge of about $2 trillion on taxpayers. Those are the taxpayers who have already run away to subsidize state colleges and universities in order to indoctrinate the next generation with the idea that men can have children. There is no denying that the national student loan debt, estimated at $1,930,446,972,357 (as of February 15, 2022), is a problem. every second.

According to financial expert Dave Ramsey, American families borrowed more than $106 billion for college in 2019. After 12 years, the average college borrower has paid off only about one-third of their student loans. It takes the average borrower 20 years or more to pay off student loans. In other words, taking out a college student loan is pretty much the same as taking out a mortgage. In fact, the median home price for 2021 will be $374,900, $50,000 higher than the previous year, but considering the student loan interest and loss of income over his four years, the final cost of a bachelor’s degree $25,000 less than quoted.

what to do about it

If we are truly serious about education, there are four courses of action we can and should take now.

First, as a precaution: to break the current system of K-12 public education, which offers little in terms of actual education, only putting students on a conveyor belt to college at Pierrot College. It enacts absolute school choice with no preschool requirements and claims that parents are the primary educators of their children (this is simply an ignored truth).

If you’re a parent, homeschool your kids unless you have a good private school. You will do a better job – you care about their well-being more than anyone else – and you will have more freedom. Parents’ Current Revolution Against Radical School Boards is a sign that parents realize that the trust they place in our public schools and the people who run them is wildly misplaced, and that teachers’ unions are actually the greatest threat to their children. .interest.

Second, at the state level, state legislators should cut public funding for state universities. State funding should be based on how well these schools serve the public good by demanding courses in Western civilization, American history, and the great books of civics. Acquisition of employable skills. and the rate at which graduates find high-paying private sector jobs. The state has oversight of these colleges and universities and should use it to ensure taxpayer money is well spent. Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said Texas State University I have the right idea of ​​wanting to severely limit the tenure of professors in and prohibit teaching critical race theory as harmful indoctrination that does not need to be taxpayer-funded.

Third, at the federal level, federal funding for large taxpayer grants and research grants needs to be more closely monitored by Congress. Every year, we amuse or shudder at stories of the federal government’s wasteful spending on ridiculous “research” at universities across the country. Not only is it simply futile, but even in a supposedly indifferent field like science, highly concerned bureaucrats like Dr. Anthony Fauci, climate change bureaucrats, or the rest comfortably restrain themselves. , are corrupt because they are at the mercy of a largely unaccountable Washington. Officials. This distorts and politicizes science. Congress should make oversight of this spending a priority.

Fourth, private schools require graduates to exercise their authority. Talk about money, as well as your involvement in the alumni association. Groups such as the American Council of Trustees and Alumni are fighting to restore academic standards and accountability in American colleges and universities. Support them. join them.

Yet despite all these efforts, even supposedly conservative politicians have, at least in the past, made genuine education reform a low priority. The electoral success of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who ran for education reform and parent empowerment, may signal that things are changing. You can expect it. Yet few politicians seem to understand the issue. Democrats and Republicans often agree that education is uniquely good, and that more is better, regardless of its content or cost. Their inaction is why we need a revolution in public education and a counter-revolution in higher education.

There is much more to life than school. And college is not a requirement of life. For most students, college is not only morally and intellectually inferior, it is also a bad investment. Go to trade school, apprentice to a craftsman, become an entrepreneur, be an actor, a delivery driver, a florist, a personal trainer, a salesman, a chef, or a real estate agent. With trade, you can get on with your life without college debt.Young and skilled workers can be truly free, both financially and intellectually. .

This is an excerpt from “.Don’t Go to College: A Case for Revolutionby Timothy Gordon and Dr. Michael Robillard.

Michael J. Robillard, MA, MA, Ph.D., an independent scholar, philosopher, and Iraq War veteran, is the author of the new book, Don’t Go to College, at Notre Dame, University of Oxford. I received an academic appointment at the university. United States Naval Academy. Timothy J. Gordon, MA, Ph.L., JD, holds degrees in Literature, History, Philosophy, and Law. Gordon is the author of numerous books, including the newly titled Don’t Go to College, and hosts the Retrogrades podcast Rules.

Join the federalist community and unlock comments.

apply