
Who got rich off the student debt crisis? [Investigative Piece] - hollaur
https://www.revealnews.org/article/who-got-rich-off-the-student-debt-crisis/
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elgabogringo
Just like government sponsored enterprises (GSE's) made housing more
expensive, they are making college tuition more expensive.

Left out of the article are probably biggest recipients of the newfound
largesse are University administrative employees whose employment "jumped 60
percent from 1993 to 2009, 10 times the growth rate for tenured faculty"[1] In
my opinion they are not just overemployed but overpaid.

Also left out are the billion dollar endowments that can generation over a
billion in annual gains - all untaxed because the schools are "non-profits."

It's strange that these points are left out. Also strange is the bias in the
article, where Republicans are at fault for everything and it's just the poor
old Democrats left standing up for students when the reality is that student
loan debt took off under Obama [2]

This is a serious, bipartisan issue. It's a classic case of special interests,
wall street, and politicians colluding to rip off Americans. This article is
biased and does a poor job identifying root causes for the crisis. Still, it's
a subject worth discussing.

[1] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-
troubl...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-11-21/the-troubling-
dean-to-professor-ratio)

[2] [http://static.cdn-
seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/127859...](http://static.cdn-
seekingalpha.com/uploads/2014/10/15/1278591-14133988994203806-Thomas-
Hughes.png)

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DefaultUserHN
Even Trump is against the government profiting off of student loans.

>Donald Trump... on Thursday criticized the federal government for earning a
profit on the federal student loan program.

>“I’ll see so many young people and they work really hard for four years,”
Trump told the newspaper. “They borrowed money. Their parents don’t have much.
They work all together and they mortgage their future.”

>“That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money
off -- I think it’s terrible...” Trump said in an interview with The Hill.

Source: [http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-
federa...](http://thehill.com/policy/finance/248913-trump-why-is-federal-
government-making-money-on-student-loans)

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Fej
Students aren't the only casualties. Universities used to be (a while ago)
places for enlightenment, learning for the sake of enhancing one's life, not
just for teaching skills. Now they are almost exclusively for vocational
training, and bettering the self, debating ideas, pushing discourse forward -
it's all by the wayside except for the highest-level institutions.

Where does discourse go when academia becomes a business?

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ben_jones
According to an Ethics Professor at the University I went to, which was a
large public university that charges very high tuition rates, the school on
average LOST money per student, and instead broke even through various other
forms of revenue. Tuition rates are inversely related to state funding of
higher education, suggesting that it is entirely the loan providers, local
businesses, and real estate managers, who profit off of students and their
parents.

That's my 2 cents at least.

~~~
michaelbuddy
Plenty of schools make money. Problem is they are constantly on a hyper growth
track. The current way of doing things is unsustainable for students. And
frankly instead of introducing young adults to the real world, they are doing
a terrible job by shielding them from it until the kids find out they're in
debt big time for the next decade.

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jkot
I find it funny that university protects students from everything even
remotely triggering. But on other side it exploits them with debt.

~~~
elgabogringo
Is that a bug or a feature?

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Overtonwindow
There's a fallacy here that I wish more reporters covered on the student loan
crisis. Why did this student go to such an expensive school if all she wanted
to do was join the Marshal Service? I feel like we do a disservice to the
debate when we don't point out the mistakes students make in not only a)
taking on massive amounts of debt, but also b) in their own poor decisions in
choosing where to go to school, what to study, and not finishing.

