Cost of higher education is out of control

From articles in The Gazette, cost of higher education in Iowa is out of control. College students' debt continues to rise from tuition, fees and living expenses despite poorer job prospects in a recession.

Default rates on federal student loans rose from 7 percent in 2008 to 8.8 percent in 2010. In Iowa, the current student loan default rate is 11.5 percent. What is worse, existing federal law stipulates that all student loans are to be government loans. Now, don't be surprised if you learn that the IRS is the collection agency. Will many graduating college students become “economic slaves” to the government?

Meanwhile, proposed tuition increases in Iowa are from 3.21 percent to 4.70 percent despite a recession.

Overall in the nation, average in-state tuition and fees at 4-year colleges rose by 8.3 percent. At the same time, pay raises for Iowa university presidents increased about 4 percent while having car and house provisions at taxpayers' expense.

Universities have been pocketing subsidies from higher student loans by increasing tuition and fees. The result is an academic and bureaucratic elite preying upon the middle class. Education is one of the great equalizers in our society and essential for upward mobility. However, has higher education taken advantage of the necessity for education and adopted a program of “need followed by greed?”

How long will this upward cost spiral of higher education continue until a crisis develops that ultimately burdens the taxpayers? Will higher education then be unaffordable to most Americans?

Gary C. Young

Cedar Rapids