The Scam of Higher (Lower) Education
I may be stating the obvious, but 4 year universities and colleges are nothing more than scams designed to bleed the taxpayer of money and trick students into the idea they "need" to take and pass certain classes!
Mind you, I'm not taking issue so much with what is learned (though I have serious reservations about cherry picking information or skewing that knowledge taught from a liberal point of view). The courses you decide to take to achieve a degree within a chosen major are needed and the intro-major courses provide a scaffolding system for the student as the student advances through his or her major courses into more intense and narrower scoped classes within their major.
The scam of higher education begins with the "prerequisite" courses a student must take before that student can pursue their chosen major. For instance, the "general education" requirements at Eastern Illinois University include:
Of course the power that be that decided the "general education" requirements justify it as creating a well rounded, worldly minded student. Bunk. It's all about the money.
According to the EIU Financial Aid site it would costs a student, who lives on campus, $22,736.00 to attend one year at EIU @ 15 hours with a 12 meal plan in the dorms. If you live off campus, it will cost a student $14,194.00 per year (actually higher if you are a commuting student) less the costs of 12 meal plan/campus housing. For our purposes, let's just use the student living off campus as an example. The costs to a student just to get through 40 hours of "general education" @ $269.00 + fees per credit hour = $17,705.00 +/-.
One question I have is why are we being double taxed or triple taxed to pay for "general education" that should have been learned while a student was in high school? How are we double or triple taxed? Look at your property taxes - you pay a portion to your local school district and then you pay a portion to EIU and Lakeland. Then you are taxed on your state income which helps pay for higher education. Then your income is taxed at the federal level which some of it filters back to the universities or colleges. In addition, once enrolled at a university there are also activity fees, parking fees, book rental (at EIU students rent books instead of buying them), health services fee, etc. More money, more problems.
It's not my fault or your fault that a student is not prepared for college. It should not be our responsibility to reteach students what they need in order to do well in their major courses. It lessens the value of a college degree when students are taught, retaught, and then pursue their career chosen college classes. If a student can't write a paper when they get to college, they either need to learn how on their own real quick or maybe, **gasp**, they shouldn't be there in the first place? It's not our fault that a student's high school did not educate them correctly or the student didn't pay attention in class. If anyone can basically get a degree because they have been coddled and tutored the first 2 years of school (at considerable costs to the student and taxpayer) so they can make it in their chosen major classes, then what's the value of a Bachelor's degree? The value sure doesn't go up, but the cost of college always does.
I'm not that old, but I do remember a time when a college degree was something special. Your degree gave you an advantage over someone that didn't have a degree, and double that sentiment if you had a Master's degree. What happens to the value of a product or service when scarcity is no longer an issue? The value of that product or service goes down. Likewise, that principle transfers to a college degree but yet the costs associated with obtaining a less-valuable degree has gone up considerably. This is also a problem I have with "online universities", but that's a post for another day...
Furthermore, universities crank out degrees like Bill Maher cranks out stupid. If a certain major is a dying field or the job market is saturated, then universities should either limit how many they allow to major in that field or shut down the program altogether. But again, it's all about the money. Just because a student wants to major in something, doesn't mean the university should provide them the avenue to pursue such folly. As an example from a fantastic movie starring Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau and David Spade called PCU:
It is beyond belief that it takes 4 or more years to get a degree because it should take only 2 at the most 3 to achieve a degree. When a student attends a university, the student should be placed directly in their chosen major courses. If they make it, great! If they sink, perhaps a university isn't for them - there is junior college though.
Junior colleges offer a 2 year degree where students do take general education courses and either graduate with an associates degree or then continue on to a 4 year university. Why are universities offering the same courses as junior colleges? Better yet, if universities and junior colleges are going offer the same courses, WHY DON'T ALL COURSES TRANSFER?!?!
That's right. Let's say you attend Lakeland, don't get an associates degree but decide after 2 years at Lakeland you want to go directly to EIU. Some of your courses will not transfer, and you will be forced to retake the same courses at EIU. Furthermore, if I attend EIU and decide after 3 years that I want to finish up my degree at SIUC or any other 4 year university, guess what....not all of your classes will transfer, if any do at all. Once arriving at your new university, you will have to retake courses you already took at EIU. So the scam for more money continues.
To continue, if I take courses at EIU but I can't fit one class or another into my schedule but Lakeland teaches the classes and is actually a class that transfers, one would think I could dual enroll, transfer my credit from Lakeland up to EIU to speed up the process towards graduation. Wrong. I used to be able to dual enroll, but universities have gotten wise and now if they find you have dual enrolled, the credit taken at the other institution will not transfer regardless if it would have transferred if you were only enrolled at the junior college. Money.
But it gets better! In order to graduate from EIU, a student has to take a senior seminar - that'll basically cost an extra $1000. If you transfer to EIU, a student has to reach "institutional residency" which means a student has to take a minimum of 30 hours at EIU to graduate.
Every step of the way, the student and the tax payer gets bled just a little more.
By allowing QUALIFIED students to attend universities and achieve their degree in less time also ensures they will have less student loan debt (not getting into that argument here) when they graduate. If a student has less debt, then they have more money to spend. If the graduate has more money to spend, then the economy benefits. And so on and so on.
As a result, we are left with archaic institutions of learning that are more concerned with ensuring our students are classicallyindoctrinated educated liberals, retaught in the finest education that our tax dollars can buy and pass out degrees like ice cream. It's redistribution of wealth - education style - and our universities are failing miserably. I can tell you horror stories of senior level students I had classes with that either could not write a coherent sentence or could not arrange the English language into a coherent sentence while speaking.
Our politicians are so concerned about reforming public education at the high school level they have completely ignored universities. I'm sure the heavily unionization of universities has nothing to do with the lack of reform in any way shape or form...
Our university system must be reformed. Dropping "general education" requirements and allowing transfer of credits from institution to institution without penalty would be a great places to start.
Mind you, I'm not taking issue so much with what is learned (though I have serious reservations about cherry picking information or skewing that knowledge taught from a liberal point of view). The courses you decide to take to achieve a degree within a chosen major are needed and the intro-major courses provide a scaffolding system for the student as the student advances through his or her major courses into more intense and narrower scoped classes within their major.
The scam of higher education begins with the "prerequisite" courses a student must take before that student can pursue their chosen major. For instance, the "general education" requirements at Eastern Illinois University include:
Humanities and Fine Arts |
9 hours |
| Language | 9 hours |
| Mathematics | 3 hours |
| Scientific Awareness | 7 hours |
| Social and Behavioral Sciences | 9 hours |
| Senior Seminar | 3 hours |
| TOTAL | 40 hours |
Of course the power that be that decided the "general education" requirements justify it as creating a well rounded, worldly minded student. Bunk. It's all about the money.
According to the EIU Financial Aid site it would costs a student, who lives on campus, $22,736.00 to attend one year at EIU @ 15 hours with a 12 meal plan in the dorms. If you live off campus, it will cost a student $14,194.00 per year (actually higher if you are a commuting student) less the costs of 12 meal plan/campus housing. For our purposes, let's just use the student living off campus as an example. The costs to a student just to get through 40 hours of "general education" @ $269.00 + fees per credit hour = $17,705.00 +/-.
One question I have is why are we being double taxed or triple taxed to pay for "general education" that should have been learned while a student was in high school? How are we double or triple taxed? Look at your property taxes - you pay a portion to your local school district and then you pay a portion to EIU and Lakeland. Then you are taxed on your state income which helps pay for higher education. Then your income is taxed at the federal level which some of it filters back to the universities or colleges. In addition, once enrolled at a university there are also activity fees, parking fees, book rental (at EIU students rent books instead of buying them), health services fee, etc. More money, more problems.
It's not my fault or your fault that a student is not prepared for college. It should not be our responsibility to reteach students what they need in order to do well in their major courses. It lessens the value of a college degree when students are taught, retaught, and then pursue their career chosen college classes. If a student can't write a paper when they get to college, they either need to learn how on their own real quick or maybe, **gasp**, they shouldn't be there in the first place? It's not our fault that a student's high school did not educate them correctly or the student didn't pay attention in class. If anyone can basically get a degree because they have been coddled and tutored the first 2 years of school (at considerable costs to the student and taxpayer) so they can make it in their chosen major classes, then what's the value of a Bachelor's degree? The value sure doesn't go up, but the cost of college always does.
I'm not that old, but I do remember a time when a college degree was something special. Your degree gave you an advantage over someone that didn't have a degree, and double that sentiment if you had a Master's degree. What happens to the value of a product or service when scarcity is no longer an issue? The value of that product or service goes down. Likewise, that principle transfers to a college degree but yet the costs associated with obtaining a less-valuable degree has gone up considerably. This is also a problem I have with "online universities", but that's a post for another day...
Furthermore, universities crank out degrees like Bill Maher cranks out stupid. If a certain major is a dying field or the job market is saturated, then universities should either limit how many they allow to major in that field or shut down the program altogether. But again, it's all about the money. Just because a student wants to major in something, doesn't mean the university should provide them the avenue to pursue such folly. As an example from a fantastic movie starring Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau and David Spade called PCU:
Tom: What's he doin?Some might argue that it's a free country and if my kid wants to get a worthless degree in underwater basket weaving, then that's his or her right. I guess you can study, or do anything you want, but that doesn't mean the tax payers have to pay for it or provide a vehicle for your kid to be eventually unemployed (thereby costing tax payers more money).
Droz: He's finishing his senior thesis. Pigman is trying to prove the Caine-Hackman theory. No matter what time it is, 24 hours a day, you can find a Michael Caine or Gene Hackman movie playing on TV.
Tom: That's his thesis?
Droz: Yes! That's the beauty of college these days, Tommy! You can major in Game Boy if you know how to bullshit.
It is beyond belief that it takes 4 or more years to get a degree because it should take only 2 at the most 3 to achieve a degree. When a student attends a university, the student should be placed directly in their chosen major courses. If they make it, great! If they sink, perhaps a university isn't for them - there is junior college though.
Junior colleges offer a 2 year degree where students do take general education courses and either graduate with an associates degree or then continue on to a 4 year university. Why are universities offering the same courses as junior colleges? Better yet, if universities and junior colleges are going offer the same courses, WHY DON'T ALL COURSES TRANSFER?!?!
That's right. Let's say you attend Lakeland, don't get an associates degree but decide after 2 years at Lakeland you want to go directly to EIU. Some of your courses will not transfer, and you will be forced to retake the same courses at EIU. Furthermore, if I attend EIU and decide after 3 years that I want to finish up my degree at SIUC or any other 4 year university, guess what....not all of your classes will transfer, if any do at all. Once arriving at your new university, you will have to retake courses you already took at EIU. So the scam for more money continues.
To continue, if I take courses at EIU but I can't fit one class or another into my schedule but Lakeland teaches the classes and is actually a class that transfers, one would think I could dual enroll, transfer my credit from Lakeland up to EIU to speed up the process towards graduation. Wrong. I used to be able to dual enroll, but universities have gotten wise and now if they find you have dual enrolled, the credit taken at the other institution will not transfer regardless if it would have transferred if you were only enrolled at the junior college. Money.
But it gets better! In order to graduate from EIU, a student has to take a senior seminar - that'll basically cost an extra $1000. If you transfer to EIU, a student has to reach "institutional residency" which means a student has to take a minimum of 30 hours at EIU to graduate.
Every step of the way, the student and the tax payer gets bled just a little more.
By allowing QUALIFIED students to attend universities and achieve their degree in less time also ensures they will have less student loan debt (not getting into that argument here) when they graduate. If a student has less debt, then they have more money to spend. If the graduate has more money to spend, then the economy benefits. And so on and so on.
As a result, we are left with archaic institutions of learning that are more concerned with ensuring our students are classically
Our politicians are so concerned about reforming public education at the high school level they have completely ignored universities. I'm sure the heavily unionization of universities has nothing to do with the lack of reform in any way shape or form...
Our university system must be reformed. Dropping "general education" requirements and allowing transfer of credits from institution to institution without penalty would be a great places to start.
Posted by downstateiladvocate at 1/11/2012 9:00 PM 
Categories: General
Tags: universities college scam EIU Lakeland Money
Categories: General
Tags: universities college scam EIU Lakeland Money
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