Don’t let slip the children of Haiti!

I have never had a satisfactory explantion as to why tuition has increased substantially more than inflation. When I attended Fairfield there were no federal loans, grants etc. to the average student coming directly from high school. The GI bill was a major exception but by and large there were no large scale loans and grants avaliable to students. It was normal for students to have summer and part time jobs to help pay for college. In my case I was fortunate to have a summer job in the Post Office. At the end of the summer I had enough money to pay for the first semester tuition and room and board. My parents took out a loan to pay the second semester. At the end of four years I had no debt.

At the risk being called a cynic my theory is that the complex system of loans and grant programs which emanated from Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was seized upon by the colleges and universities as an opportunity to substanially raise their tuition and fees with a base guaranteed by the U.S. Government. Then they could expect the students and their parents to add to the pie. To steal a phrase from a famous patriot, “If this be treason make the most of it.” One illustration of my point. If one could locate a University brochure from the fifties it would make an interesting comparison to today’s. Particularly noteworthy was the small number of administrators in comparison to the present. In few of the discussions on tuition increases does one hear about why colleges have indulged in their gargantuan increases. There will come a time whan parents say,”Enough.” For my part I am reminded of that wonderful speech by Martin Luther King, jr. given during height of the civil rights movement, “Free at last.”

Looking forward to seeing more posts.