The Rising Cost of Education Introduction

The socio-cultural problem of the rising cost of public and higher education is one that affects a wide range of stakeholders across multiple communities throughout the country. Education is something that allows people to develop skills, hone a craft, become more knowledgeable about various subjects, and obtain jobs that can support themselves, their families and give back to the overall economy and society. Education is thus a very important plank in how societies grow, develop and maintain stable connections and networks. Without education, a society will inevitably fester, decay and decline: individuals will lack the skills to compete with others from other parts of the world for work. Their economy and communities will collapse. Because globalization is such a force to be reckoned with in the Digital Era, the need for access to education in today’s day and age is even greater than ever before: there is so much competition in the marketplace, individuals must obtain knowledge and skills to be able to make a living for themselves and their families. The problem is that education itself is becoming increasingly expensive and hanging so much debt upon adult students that they are beginning to wonder if it is even worth it—especially as it becomes harder and harder to obtain a job in the field for which they acquired a diploma in the first place. This paper will examine the facts about the problem of the rising cost of education, the consequences of this issue, the causes of the problem, and solutions that can be implemented to solve the problem.

The Facts about the Problem

As Briana Boyington reports, costs have been going up for decades. The chart below illustrates this phenomenon visually by displaying the average increasing rate of tuitions at ranked colleges over the past 20 years.

Source: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-20/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities

Lily Rothman adds that “these days, the average cost for a year at a four-year college ranges from $9,410 for in-state public tuition to $32,410 for private. Neither of those figures includes room and board.” These prices would not be so bad if the living wages of workers was actually increasing as well—but wages have stagnated since the 1990s. Lawrence Mishel, Elise Gould and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute have pointed out that “from 1973 to 2013, hourly compensation of a typical (production/nonsupervisory)...

This means that workers have been producing far more than they receive in their paychecks and benefit packages from their employers.” Thus, no matter how one looks at, education prices have gone up while wages have virtually stayed the same. Add into that the little matter of inflation (aka the devaluation of the dollar, escalated fiercely since 2008 and the Federal Reserve’s application of unconventional monetary policy known as Quantitative Easing) and one can see that one’s bang for the buck does not go quite as far as it used to—and the soaring costs of education can be understood as just one effect of that.
Consequences

The consequences of higher education costs are not felt by students alone, however. They are felt both by employers and by families. These two spheres are essential to consider because they are twin supports of society. If either is hampered by rising costs in education, society ultimately pays the price.

Employers also feel the effect. They are the ones looking for suitable applicants to positions within their companies that require competence, hard work, and ability. The smaller the pool of available applicants, the harder it is to hire. Soaring education costs just make it all the more likely that the applicant pool is going to dwindle. With fewer people able to afford the high cost of education, companies must look elsewhere to find reliable workers. That means in many cases firms will go abroad. Already, many companies look to countries like India for skilled IT workers (Bhattacharya). The more expensive that necessary education becomes, the harder it is for American workers (who are already struggling to make ends meet) to provide a better path forward for themselves. And as firms offshore, the economy at home will continue to stagnate. That sets in motion a vicious cycle of rising costs and reduced income for families. A community that is not employed is a community that will not have the ability to invest in itself, in infrastructure, in social programs, or in the future. Education is the bedrock of so many things in society that if it is priced so high that it becomes unaffordable, it is like saying the future is no longer possible. Instability is the end result, and no society can progress when it is being destabilized from within.

Even allegedly “free public schools” are now charging parents and families for services and programs, which only adds to the problem. Public schools are…