http://aionafinnegan.com/?p=27…

We paid for all 3 of our kids college educations finishing in 2005, 2006 and 2008 without any loans – barely under the escalating wire. If the Dems do the bailout thing on the student loans, my kids will be furious. They all had to work while they were in school to help support themselves while they watched their friends party day and night with loan funds in the bank! (I think I recognize a few of the names in those Facebook lists above – I’m going to contact my kids and tell them to check and see if they’ve been Facejacked.)

One additional thought on the increased tuition: while I know a significant portion of the funds is going to top heavy administration, there is a HUGE chunk going to what I call “ammenities”. I saw this at A&M when two of mine were going there – very nice Rec Center, football stadium, swimming pools, very large dorm rooms & parking garages. WAY more than we had 40 years ago. I think some of this at A&M is covered by very generous alumni donations, but not all. We have lived in Nacogdoches for over 20 years and I have watched Stephen F Austin State University do the same thing – new Rec Center, new tennis center, expanded/rennovated Student Center, five new, huge dorms in the last 6 years, 3 parking garages, etc. Full disclosure – my husband’s civil engineering firm received lots of $$ from working on almost all of those projects. But the whole thing still pains me.

The Powers-That-Be say that they “have” to do these kind of projects in order to compete with other schools to get students. It makes me sad on several levels because: (1) at least some of this capital spending is taxpayer money because these are state universities (2) much of it is tuition $$ that is either, again, taxpayer money because the students come from poor or middle class families that qualify for grants, or is taxpayer subsidized because of the low-interest loans. At least some of it is coming out of parents’ pockets because they have worked hard to earn and save it (3) this huge escalation in the cost of a college-education puts it out of reach of many kids who are not willing to start out life with that kind of debt (my husband and I refused to do the debt thing – we were able to work our way through college in the 70′s which is next to impossible now) (4) WHERE DOES IT END? We build lots more nice stuff, give these kids steak to eat, more tennis courts and swimming pools. What’s next? Do they all get Mercedes to drive at one school and Fords at another? We seem to have forgotten that the end goal here is AN EDUCATION – duh! AND perhaps a JOB? withOUT 10 years worth of debt so high that you’ll never buy a house or a new car or get ahead?

What no one ever talks about in this picture is how completely reasonable taking classes at a local 2-yr college is. There are no dorms, very small library, no athletic teams or stadiums, no Rec Center – and the tuition is one-tenth what it is at SFA! My youngest chose this route and I daresay that his classes were much more practical and he actually had more hands-on learning than his sisters did at A&M and SFA. It CAN be done – it COULD be done at a 4-year school if someone only wanted to. As long as the Bill Powers type people are in charge, the higher education system will look just like our country does – in debt up to our eyeballs because of entitlements.

I admire Perry for standing up to this – I hope he sees the enevitable end to this train and continues to fight for what is right. Just one more example of the liberal MSM taking sides against Perry and the conservative approach. Once again, Texas is the guinea pig. It’s tough to always have to be the adult in the room.

Thanks again for your excellent post – it’s great that RedState provides such an excellent education!

The low 6.8 percent rate ? private loans for students cost about 12 percent ? was itself the result of a federal subsidy. And students have no collateral that can be repossessed in case they default, which 23 percent of those receiving the loans in question do. The maximum loan for third- and fourth-year students is $5,500 a year. The payment difference between 3.4 percent and 6.8 percent is less than $10 a month, so the ?problem? involves less than 30 cents a day.

My emphasis added. Which is more important to the people paying for the education–an already below-market rate being held extra low, or an already high price being increased from 5 to 25 percent every year?

As someone who took out some student loans and paid them all off, that bailout mentality infuriates me.

And using PROOF rather than assertions or half-truths or generalizations to support the reporting! Imagine that!

Somebody famous argues right now like this:

“Some people say…” “There are those out there claimin’ …” “THEY want to take away your…” “We got some folks out there sayin’ …”

Will: are you a professional journalist?

My oldest daughter has bee contemplating getting a loan for graduate school after graduating debt free with less than wonderful career options. I put a lot of research into student loans and am appalled at how the business model of higher education works. It is a scam like no other.

It isn’t just that their individual pay climbs, but the number of people employed seems never to go down, and even the employees per student number is going up.

Arizona has been in a bad recession, high school populations are trending down, yet the local university is in a building boom. One must wonder Why?

And UT is raising prices to build a Med School? Unless Obamacare is repealed, they are going to have empty classrooms in the not-too-distant-future.

Quality education? If Matt Portillo is an example, and if his comment is representative….