The Education Bubble Collapses

Time reports: Cash-Strapped State Schools Being Forced to Privatize.

The cash-strapped state of Michigan is looking to save money any way it can, and some political leaders have suggested essentially privatizing the state's flagship university. While formally turning the school into a private university would be tricky — requiring legislative approval, a constitutional amendment, and the support of the university's Board of Regents — legislators have proposed eliminating the $327 million in funding that the state provides to the university each year. Making up the state's contribution, however, would require an endowment on the order of $16 billion, a nearly impossible task even in flush times.

Traditionally, state universities provided an affordable education for its residents by offering subsidized in-state tuition. For Lansing native Anneke Stadt, a sophomore nursing student, the $11,037 tuition is the main reason she's at the University of Michigan. Stadt says she looked into private schools like Hope College ($33,000 tuition) and Kalamazoo College ($38,000 tuition). "I couldn't really afford them, though," she explains, "so I hedged my bets with the public school."

The struggling economy is forcing even wealthy families to look for the best value for their tuition dollars. For just $5,000 more in tuition, an out-of-state student could forgo Michigan for New York University, the nation's largest private school with nearly double the number of faculty.

Are you freakin' kiddin' me? $160K to attend Kalamazoo College?!?

You're better off taking that money, running off to Mexico and blowing it all on hookers and weed.

You'd have to be completely and utterly insane to pay those prices to go to those colleges. You'll never be able to pay back the opportunity cost of capital ever!

Education is a good thing. This is hardly worth debating about.

However, it doesn't have infinite value. It has finite value in relation to the income that you are going to pull down on the basis of that education. This should also be obvious!

Not understanding this, these kids are totally screwed.