In The News

[unforth]

GM, Chrysler and Ford Ask for Billions of Taxpayers Dollars, Again - should we bail out the automakers? Discuss. (I, personally, don't think we should, even though I'm very scared of the repercussions if when they fail.)
College Tuition Increasing At Much Higher Rate than Family Incomes - this article would be a lot more helpful if it gave more of an idea of WHY this is happening.
Chambliss (R) Now Senator of Georgia - for those who were hoping for the Dem 60 (which was damned unlikely) - it's now gone for good.
Episcopal Church Likely to Split Over Ordination of Gay Bishop - apparently, this is the culmination of 5 years of bickering.

Comments

[ozziel.livejournal.com]

I think it could be described rather simply:

Less jobs to be had -> More competition for jobs -> College degree required to be competitive -> Colleges understand necessity of degree -> Degrees increase in price.

Or, to simply it further:

Step 1: Degree; Step 2: ?????; Step 3: Profit

[unforth.livejournal.com]

And, unlike the underpants equation, there are a whole lot of potential items that count as ?????. :)

Really, though, that makes a lot of sense. It's relatively straightforward supply/demand situation, now that ya point it out. I knew that the reason that state degrees have gone up in price is because of less state funding - and schools are trying to take more students with less $$$ for support, so students have to make up the difference. But I think that some of it is priorities - the case in point I always use is that while I was at Binghamton, SUNY fronted the price of a multi-million dollar sports complex while my department (History, not exactly a minor area!) had so little money that students had to print their own copies of the syllabus because the department couldn't afford xerox paper and toner. And you know, when I think college sports, I definitely think SUNY Binghamton Binghamton University.

In the end, though, what I fear is that there divide between the haves and the have-nots will continue to grow if it becomes increasingly difficult/impossible for students from lower and lower-middle class backgrounds to go to college. And that's not right.