'Affordability' is the the wrong goal

Reader comment on: Making College More Affordable

Submitted by Fast Eddie (United States), Oct 18, 2012 14:19

The argument for greater 'affordability' is truly wrongheaded. The goal ought to be greater accessability by means of much greater use of technology, i.e., online education instead of the current system of physically gathering thousands of students on a campus because the current system perpetuates the escalation of college costs. Obviously, some progress in online college-level instruction has been made in recent years (BIG exception: law school) and will certainly continue, but, by and large, the college educational establishment sees widespread online instruction as a very serious threat to their financial well being because of its potential for drastically reducing costs and therefore reducing the torrent of undeserved funding that is enriching many schools and faculties without a parallel improvement in educational outcomes and with a huge buildup of student debt.

It is clear that tens of billions of dollars of student debt is incurred every year merely for the privilege of being taught 'in person' by physically attending brick and mortar institutions rather than obtaining the same knowledge by means of online instruction, absent the presence of incentives and use of loans so the students can party and otherwise use time that ought to be devoted to studying.

Note: Comments are moderated by the editor and are subject to editing.

Comment on this item