The Intercept: Increase In Defense Budget Would Pay for Free College Tuition

According to the organization the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2016–2017 school year was $33,480 at private colleges, and it was $9,650 for state residents at public colleges, and $24,930 for out-of-state residents attending public universities.

According to CNBC, more than 44 million Americans have taken out student loans to pay for school, and their debt totals $1.4 trillion. The average debt for 20-year-olds is $22,135, and for 30-year-olds, it’s $34,033, and will increase.

This is a disaster.

Sources state that there are several countries where college tuition is free or virtually free.  The writer of this blog post was able to study in Germany, and tuition was indeed almost free. (At the time, there was a fee of around 70 Deutschmarks a semester.)

Tuition costs in France are not free, but they are very inexpensive.  Studyineurope.eu reports that bachelor’s programs cost 189.10 EUR per year (roughly $224), and engineering degrees have a tuition fee of 615.10 EUR per academic year (or about $729).

CNBC writes that the total cost of tuition for a degree at a public university in the U.S. could be $250,000 eighteen years from now.

America is no stranger to the concept of free tuition, because public high schools are free.

Where would the money come from?

As it so happens, the website The Intercept reports that the recent increase in the military budget alone is enough to pay for free college.

On September 18th, the U.S. Senate approved an $80 billion annual increase in military spending, to $700 billion for the year 2018.  However, USA Today estimates that the tuition costs at all 4-year colleges and universities is roughly $70 billion a year, which is less than the increase in defense spending.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/17/in-18-years-a-college-degree-could-cost-about-500000.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/10/29/7-countries-where-americans-can-study-at-universities-in-english-for-free-or-almost-free/?utm_term=.f4fc9e6d4bbb

https://www.salon.com/2014/11/02/7_countries_where_college_is_free_partner/

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/senate-passes-700-billion-defense-policy-bill-backing-trump-call-for-steep-increase-in-military-spending.html

Bernie Sanders issues bill to make 4-year colleges tuition-free

https://theintercept.com/2017/09/18/the-senates-military-spending-increase-alone-is-enough-to-make-public-college-free/

https://www.marketplace.org/2015/03/31/education/learning-curve/how-german-higher-education-controls-costs

http://againstausterity.org/wsst

Could There Be Debt-Free College Under President Hillary Clinton?

According to MarketWatch, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager alluded to the idea of students going debt-free if Hillary becomes U.S. President.

Making college more affordable is part of Clinton’s plan to boost quality of life for ordinary Americans, Robby Mook, “Hillary for America” campaign manager, told CNBC.

He was responding to a question about which age demographic will be the toughest for Clinton to lure.

“What voters are looking for in this election is someone who is going to be a champion for everyday people,” Mook said Wednesday. “For young people, that’s debt-free college, that is finding that job after you graduate.”

Though the Clinton campaign has yet to officially endorse a plan that would let students graduate from school without loans, the fact that the words “debt-free college” came out of Mook’s mouth is seen as a victory for progressives. Over the past few months, a collective of liberals has been working to push the idea into mainstream Democratic circles, according to Bloomberg.

Mook’s comments come just weeks after a group of congressional Democrats introduced a resolution calling for a way for students to attend public colleges and universities debt-free.

That proposal could be made possible through a combination of increasing federal aid to states and students as well as reducing the cost of college, according to a white paper co-authored by left-leaning think tank Demos and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.  That group has spearheaded the debt-free college campaign, writes MarketWatch.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/debt-free-college-under-president-hillary-clinton-2015-05-08

Is There A College Tuition Crisis?

According to Ring of Fire, one of the biggest problems facing college students and recent graduates in the U.S. is the staggering amount of student loan debt that they have to carry to be able to attend school.

The threat of these debts are keeping millions of high school graduates out of college, but a new proposal from President Obama is aimed at changing this cycle.

America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, and progressive radio and TV host David Pakman talk about this.

Ring of Fire

More:

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/09/viewpoint-6-real-fixes-for-the-student-loan-debt-crisis/

http://www.flatheadnewsgroup.com/hungryhorsenews/obama-talks-about-middle-class-economics/article_a7d6be9a-ae57-11e4-9c9f-5396a21fb95b.html

Economists Argue That College Athletes Should Be Paid

The average pro basketball player makes $24.7 million over his 4.8 year career, according to The USA Today.

The average pro football player makes $6.7 million over his 3.5 year career.

But the average college basketball or football player doesn’t even make $1.  While they may receive full or partial academic scholarships, not a single college athlete is paid.

The NCAA, which regulates 23 sports at 1,200 schools across the US, has repeatedly argued student-athletes should not get salaries. They say this “undermines the purpose of college: an education.”

“Student-athletes are not employees, and their participation in college sports is voluntary.”

In their recent report, The Case For Paying College Athletes, economists Allen Sanderson and his co-author John Siegfried claim this system is not only unfair, but possibly illegal.

“Last year in March, the National Labor Relations Board decided Northwestern’s football players were primarily athletes, rather than students,” says Allen Sanderson, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Chicago and co-author of the article.

Northwestern players can now get employee medical benefits and unionize, according to USA Today.

Although it doesn’t matter whether they unionize or not, Sanderson says, “because the overriding principle is they fall under labor law, not ‘student law.’”

Northwestern is now appealing that decision.  The economists feel that Northwestern will lose the case.

“They’re going lose, they know they’re going lose,” Sanderson says. “Can the NCAA survive [players being labeled as employees]? Yes. But it’s going to be messy.”

Sanderson and his co-author John Siegfried believe the NCAA might not survive the outcome of the Kessler case.

“The Kessler case is a lawsuit [filed by Jeffrey Kessler] against the NCAA, arguing that it is price-fixing when the NCAA sets the amount for the grant-in-aid, tuition, room and books [student-athletes receive],” Sanderson explains.

Student Sues Her Divorced Parents For Tuition, Wins

On Monday, a Superior Court judge in Camden, NJ ordered the parents of 21-year-old Temple University student Caitlyn Ricci to pay $906 of her tuition from Gloucester County College (now known as Rowan College at Gloucester County). She has been in a legal battle with her parents, Maura McGarvey and Michael Ricci, for more than a year.

The decision follows a ruling from this fall that bound her parents to pay $16,000 toward her tuition at Temple. The two have appealed that ruling.

Ricci sued her parents last spring, and reports say the woman has not seen her parents outside of court appearances in about two years. Her grandparents are paying her legal fees

Ricci’s legal victory has a legal precedent in Newburgh v. Arrigo, 88 N.J. 529 (1982). In that case, a judge ruled that divorced parents were legally responsible for paying for their children’s higher education.

In November, the parents told Chris J. Brown, a New Jersey assemblyman working to create legislation blocking adult children from suing their parents for tuition, that while they are divorced, they have jointly made decisions about raising their daughter.