Old-school flip phones are making a comeback as some look for simpler lifestyle (CBS Mornings)

How College Destroyed the Labor Market (Damon Cassidy)

Underemployment, low wage jobs, and bullsh*t jobs are an important part of the US economy. And the higher education system does not appear to have done much to change this depressing reality. While this video may represent a distortion of US history and society, it should not be ignored. Skepticism about higher education is real, and for good reason, especially for the working class. There are also good points made in this video, including the federal and corporate de-funding of vocational education and crushing student loan debt. 

To understand what can be done, the US needs to look at what more progressive nations have done with education at all levels, and how education is tied to the larger economy and to Quality Of Life. Being able to reform the American system is a challenge, however, when vested interests (corporations and their government surrogates) work to keep the existing system of inequality and injustice in place.

Related links: 

The College Dream is Over (Gary Roth) 

A People's History of Higher Education in the US 

Student Loan Debt

Wealth and Want

Rehumanization in Higher Education: An Alternative to Maximizing Panic and Profit

It's questionable whether the Earth's tech bros (e.g. Gates, Musk, Bezos, Thiel, Zuckerberg) really believe in democracy, but they do believe in enriching themselves, like the robber barons of the 19th century, or going back even further, to myths of flawed rulers and gods of ancient times. A few of these bros, believing mostly in themselves, have suggested that democracy is incompatible with progress. There are probably more of these elites (and their backers) who agree, but on the back stage. 

Today, there are apps for just about everything, and there are some good ones. But there are few signs that the most recent technological innovations have improved the overall existence of humans, the planet we live on, or the many other species with share the planet with. Life is great for some, good for many, and not as happy for many more. Folks feel anxious, alienated, and dehumanized and for good reason.

Rehumanization: An Alternative to Maximizing Panic and Profit 

Despite all this new technology, climate change is an existential threat and its consequences are looming. Wars and conflicts are raging around the world and there are threats of more war. Stock prices have risen, but American Quality of Life (QOL) has not improved significantly. Information for the masses is laced with toxic propaganda. Mental illness is rising. US life expectancy has plateaued. Debt is a normal part of middle class life. People are more sedentary and obese. 

For many in this new tech world, sh*t jobs are plentiful and good jobs are hard to find. Bitcoin is an alternative (and speculative) currency used for illegal and predatory activity. Online teachers and content creators are throwaway items. You can have prepared food, of varying quality, delivered to your door. Pornography is omnipresent. Mass surveillance is accepted and normalized. Brutality and genocide can be watched like entertainment, to be played over and over or swept away at the touch of a finger. Online robocollege education is available 24/7/365 and cheating is rampant, but for many a degree is just a ticket to be punched in a world of hypercredentialism.   

Some of us are half-conscious of the algorithms of oppression and those who dictate the code, but we have enough faith in technology and the tech bros that it will be ok if we accept certain social realities--and don't fight it or challenge it. If we just go along. However sick, pathological, or evil it is, no matter how greedy these tech bros and their enablers are, "it is what it is." 

How is this progress? And does it have to be this way? We don't think so. There are even models to bring light into the approaching darkness.

That's why we want to highlight the bright spots in higher education in a series called the Rehumanization of Higher Ed. Stay tuned. 

College Meltdown 3.0 Could Start Earlier (And End Worse) Than Planned

Chronicling the College Meltdown 

Since 2016, the Higher Education Inquirer has documented the College Meltdown as a series of demographic and business trends leading to lower enrollments and making higher education of decreasing value to working-class and middle-class folks. This despite the commonly-held belief that college is the only way to improve social mobility.  

For more than a dozen years, the College Meltdown has been most visible at for-profit colleges and community colleges, but other non-elite schools and for-profit edtech businesses have also been affected. Some regions, states, and counties have been harder hit than others. Non-elite state universities are becoming increasingly vulnerable. 

Elite schools, on the other hand, do not need students for revenues, at least in the short run.  They depend more on endowments, donations, real estate, government grants, corporate grants, and other sources of income. Elite schools also have more than enough demand for their product even after receiving bad press.    

The perceived value and highly variable real value of higher education has made college less attractive to many working-class consumers and to an increasing number of middle-class consumers--who see it as a risky proposition. Degrees in the humanities and social sciences are becoming a tough sell. Even some STEM degrees may not be valuable for too long.  Public opinion about higher education and the value of higher education has been waning and many degrees, especially graduate degrees, have a negative return on investment. 

Tuition and room and board costs have skyrocketed. Online learning has become more prominent, despite persistent questions about its educational value. 

While college degrees have worked for millions of graduates, student loans have mired millions of other former students, and their families, in long-term debt, doing work in fields they aren't happy with. 

Elite degrees for people in the upper class still make sense though, as status symbols and social sorters. And there are some professions that require degrees for inclusion. But those degrees and the lucrative jobs accompanying them disproportionately go to foreigners and immigrants, and their children--a demographic wave that may draw the ire of folks who have lived in the US for generations and who may have not enjoyed the same opportunities.  

Starting Sooner and Ending Worse

The latest phase of the College Meltdown was supposed to result from a declining number of high school graduates in 2025, something Nathan Grawe projected from lower birth rates following the 2008-2009 recession.

But problems with the federal government's financial aid system may mean that a significant decline in enrollment at non-elite schools starts this fall instead of 2025.  

The College Meltdown may become even worse than planned, in terms of lower enrollment and declining revenues to non-elite schools. Enrollment numbers most assuredly will be worse than Department of Education projections of slow growth until 2030. 

In 2023, we wrote about something few others reported on: that community colleges and state universities would feel more financial pressure from by the flip-side of the Baby Boom: the enormous costs of taking care of the elderly which could drain public coffers that subsidize higher education. This was a phenomenon that should also have been anticipated by higher education policy makers, but is still rarely discussed. Suzanne Mettler graphed this out in Degrees of Inequality a decade ago--and the Government Accountability Office noted the huge projected costs in 2002. 

Related links: 

Starting my new book project: Peak Higher Education (Bryan Alexander)

Long-Term Care:Aging Baby Boom Generation Will Increase Demand and Burden on Federal and State Budgets (Government Accountability Office, 2002)

Forecasting the College Meltdown (2016)

Charting the College Meltdown (2017)

US Department of Education Fails to Recognize College Meltdown (2017)

Community Colleges at the Heart of the College Meltdown (2017)

College Enrollment Continues Decline in Several States (2018) 

The College Dream is Over (Gary Roth, 2020)

The Growth of RoboColleges and Robostudents (2021)

Even Elite Schools Have Subprime Majors (2021)

College Meltdown 2.0 (2022)

State Universities and the College Meltdown (2022) 

"20-20": Many US States Have Seen Enrollment Drops of More Than 20 Percent (2022) 

US Department of Education Projects Increasing Higher Ed Enrollment From 2024-2030. Really?(2022)

EdTech Meltdown (2023) 

Enrollment cliff? What enrollment cliff ? (2023)

Department of Education Fails (Again) to Modify Enrollment Projection (2023)

When Will Higher Education Revenues Peak? (2023)

Baby Boomers Turning 80: The Flip Side of the 2026 Enrollment Cliff (2023)  

The Student Loan Mess Updated: Debt as a Form of Social Control and Political Action (2024)

Student Loans and a Brutal Lifetime of Debt (Dahn Shaulis and Glen McGhee)

The US Department of Education is holding more than 900,000 student loans that are at least 30 years old. Tens of thousands of these loans originated almost a half-century ago. And it's likely that most of the total balances are the result of interest charges that have accumulated over the decades--from people who can't ever pay back their loans.

 

Source: US Department of Education  

Will these student loans finally be forgiven under the latest Biden forgiveness plan?  Or will the US continue to honor (and bail out) the rich while punishing generations of the working class for their mistakes?  

The information in this article is part of a larger effort to examine quality of life, disability, and premature death among student loan debtors. Our most recent Freedom of Information requests to the US Department of Education attempt to gather more information.

23-02758-F  

The Higher Education Inquirer is asking for the age and cause of death of the last 100 student loan debtors whose debt was relieved because of death.  The age and cause of death should be listed on the death certificates sent to the US Department of Education for student loan relief.   (Date Range for Record Search: From 09/09/2022 To 09/09/2023)

23-02747-F  

The Higher Education Inquirer is requesting the number of loans and the dollar amount of loans that have been discharged each year for the last ten years due to (1) death and (2) disability.  If available, we would also like an estimate of the number of debtors affected in that decade.   (Date Range for Record Search: From 09/08/2013 To 09/08/2023)

From Glen McGhee:

A study published in the Journal of American College Health[2] reveals that student loans are associated with negative health outcomes among college students, including delaying medical care. The study found that those with student loans are more likely to delay medical, dental, and mental health care[1]. 

 

Another study published in Health Soc Care Community[4] found that borrowers behind or in collections on student loans are forgoing healthcare after self-reporting general physical ill-health. The study's objective examines whether falling behind on student loans may compound ill-health by deterring people from seeking healthcare. The results of this study confirm that student loans are associated with poor health. 

 

A survey conducted by ELVTR[5] found that 54% of respondents say their mental health struggles are directly related to their student loan debt. Additionally, over 80% of participants say student loan debt has delayed a major life event for them. 

 

Another survey conducted by CNBC + Acorns Invest In You[6] found that more than 60% of borrowers say student loan debt has negatively affected their mental health.

Citations:
[1] https://theconversation.com/college-students-with-loans-more-likely-to-report-bad-health-and-skip-medicine-and-care-study-finds-209810
[2] https://www.psypost.org/2023/07/study-links-student-loans-to-negative-health-outcomes-and-delayed-medical-care-among-college-students-166116
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36595565/
[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9542623/
[5] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/21/americans-mental-health-continue-to-struggle-amid-student-loan-debt.html
[6] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/student-loan-debt-hurts-the-mental-health-of-most-borrowers.html