This is the fifth of a series of blogs on education. The first four are:
1. The USA Was The Greatest Nation On This Planet -- Was http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/education/the-usa-was-the-greatest-nation-on-this-planet--was/190391
2. Mexico Cares More About College Education Than The USA http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/education/mexico-cares-more-about-college-education-than-the-usa/190910
3. Oregon Has A Solution For Student Debt Crisis http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/education/oregon-has-a-solution-for-student-debt-crisis/191306
4. Are Men Just Stupid? http://newyork.storeboard.com/blogs/education/are-men-just-stupid/191722
5. The USA Actively Restricts Educational Opportunities
I keep using cartoon characters from “The Simpsons” such as Montgomery Burns in my series of blogs on education. Maybe that’s because whenever I think about how bad the American education system is, I think about the television series’ biting and accurate satires on education.
This blog is about the fact that pursuing a college degree has become unobtainable for many people over the past few decades. The article that I have linked to this blog, which is from CNNMoney magazine, is titled “Surging college costs price out middle class.” (I guess the lower class has already been priced out.)
The article shows the problem in charts and graphs. The more we prevent talented kids from going to college, the more we need charts and graphs.
In essence, median income in 2008 was about the same as it was in 1988 -- $33,000. Yet college tuition has “more than doubled” in those 20 years from about $2,800 to $6,500 annually (I’m afraid to continue looking for data that accurately reflects what has happened in this nation since The Great Recession of 2008 destroyed the economic lives of millions of Americans.)
And the best and the brightest should be attending the best colleges, which charge a heckuva lot more than $6,500 (I think my alma mater was about $50K, the last time I looked.
If median income rose at the same rate as tuition, median income would be $77,000. That’s not a typo.
Income inequality, soaring college costs, and the reluctance of the U.S. government to help teenagers go to colleges is a recipe for disaster. Simply put, the U.S. is not who we say we are. We are NOT the place to be for educational opportunity and economic opportunity (as we used to be.)
What happened?
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