The Obama administration has gone on the offensive against for-profit colleges, but Ronald Trowbridge thinks it’s ignoring similar problems at non-profit schools. Here’s his letter in today’s Wall Street Journal:
The Obama administration is suing for-profit schools “ostensibly to protect students from taking on too much debt.” The Department of Education projects that the average university senior will graduate in 2012 with $29,000 in outstanding loans. Tuition at Texas’s public universities will average about $8,500 this year. The average student’s living expenses in 2010 were $17,820. Together, the total cost would be $26,320. If we multiply this figure by five, as most students take more than four years to graduate, the total is $131,600. With tuition and related costs rising at 10% per year, the figure over five years would be a lot more. Sending two kids to college would be more expensive than buying a nice home. And the Obama administration attacks only for-profit schools? It’s overlooking the elephant in the room.
Ronald Trowbridge
Texas Public Policy Foundation
Conroe, Texas