College used to be affordable. What happened? w/Ellen Schrecker | The Chris Hedges Report

The 1960s were a decade of intellectual and political ferment on college campuses. Anti-war, feminist, and racial justice movements all found a foothold in higher education, with student activists often playing a pivotal role in social movements that extended far beyond the university. A crucial condition for the student radicalism of the time was the affordability of public higher education and the recent dissolution of barriers that prevented students of minoritized backgrounds from attending college. Today, these conditions have all but disappeared. Collectively, college graduates owe some $1.6 trillion in student debt. The most elite institutions have been cordoned off from students of working class backgrounds by astronomically high tuition fees. Even public universities demand staggering rates from their students. When did this change occur, and why? Retired professor of history Ellen Schrecker joins The Chris Hedges Report to explain the long assault on public, affordable higher education detailed in her new book, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s.
Ellen Schrecker is a retired professor of history at Yeshiva University. She is the author of several books on McCarthyism and higher education.
Studio Production: Adam Coley, Cameron Granadino
Post-Production: Adam Coley, Kayla Rivara
Audio Post-Production: Tommy Harron
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[@stconstable]

Because education was turned into a for profit business.

[@maxgatica5736]

Sadly true done by both parties in this country.

[@HABAKKUP]

Pure un adulterated theft!

[@coloradopeoplesnews7676]

It's literally a racketeering business. The main purpose for the excessive tuition is strap the most likely people to be competition with loans that can't be paid back. If you're in debt, one can't be a capitalist in the ownership class. The main theme about everything is to kill competition so that the few have all the money and power.

[@barquerojuancarlos7253]

@@coloradopeoplesnews7676 ... isn't that a version of inherent contradictions within capitalism Marx wrote about?

[@coloradopeoplesnews7676]

@@barquerojuancarlos7253 Yep. A never ending cycle of societal death.

[@antimattv]

"They got money for wars, but none for the poors"

[@doktormcnasty]

Wars are way more profitable than the poors. That 'war what is it good for?' song always blew my mind because the answer is so simple and obvious: it's good for profits, baby. And cashing in. Making bank. You get the picture. I don't understand why that singer guy was so confused about it.

[@chrisowens9977]

EXACTLY!! You both are right. No money for poor but money for wars, and wars ARE profitable like the other guy said. With that said, if it's so profitable, shouldn't there be enough money for the poors from the profits?

[@cheri238]

"War is a Racket," Smedley Butler

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

@@doktormcnasty Profitable for the MIC, but not so much for the taxpayers.

[@doktormcnasty]

@@MrLuigiFercotti That's okay, though since the taxpayers never stand up for themselves in any sort of substantial way profits, profits, and more profits it is, then!

[@elligilberg1564]

I graduated from college in 1984. My parents paid half and I paid half with a student loan. I took a few years but easily paid off my student loan. Twenty-five years later I went back for one semester and it cost more than my entire original 4 year degree. So now I have a debt that I cannot afford to pay. The U.S. has lost its way.

[@phade2blaq]

America has not lost its way. They are explaining what happened in the video in that the upper crust do not want the lower classes gaining access to higher education and those who choose to go in heavy debt do so only to find they've grossly overpaid for a degree that is essentially worthless. All of what we now see in America is the elite racists pushing back on Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War protesting, integration, etc etc etc now we have people like DeSantis putting it on display by using terms like "woke" so America has not lost its way. These people have purposely designed it so that Poverty especially for people of color is a way of life. Now keep in mind FDR was able to pay for his New Deal programs by heavily taxing the rich and they resented it but went along with and when non Whites tried to gain access, they abruptly slashed those programs and turned them into a dependence mechanism. 1950s the income tax rate was 91% and now today in 2023 it's far less than half that at about 28% so the rich have done exactly what they planned to do all those decades ago. Now America is a country where more than half of our rural and inner city areas are now capitalistic wastelands and dead zones with no meaningful job, no economic growth etc etc and all of those manufacturing jobs that emerged after WW2 for white working class me disappeared in the 1970s as more and more Whites went college leaving those jobs unfulfilled so they decided they didn't not want Black people with those jobs so they shuttled plants and moved offshore.

[@rcquakes30]

Get rid of the fat cats in administration by 60 to 80 percent

[@terywetherlow7970]

In 1995 the Ceo of home depot made $250,000 a yr. Today Ceo makes 22 million Tell me how?

[@johnallenbailey1103]

Wage theft

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

You wonder what the business burden of such high CEO pay does to the quality of the goods sold. The money has to come from somewhere.

[@Madronaxyz]

I am 68 years old and a 5th generation Texan. College was never affordable in Texas. The reason that college was unaffordable in Texas is because the right-to-work laws and lack of enforcement of the federal minimum wage kept wages very low. Before I turned sixteen I babysat for fifty cents per hour. Once I turned sixteen I started working at the local grocery. I made less than $1.00 when the federal minimum wage was about two and a half dollars. At college, in my work-study jobs, I never more than $1.85 an hour--much less than the federal minimum wage. During college I work the following jobs: typing 90 words a minute, running complex experiments in an agronomy lab, being responsible for overseeing my dorm Wing, etc. All jobs that required skill and experience. I stopped eating meat because it was too expensive since I only had $10 a week to spend on groceries. I was better off than most poor college students I knew in Texas because I had more than half of my tuition paid by my scholarships. At our high School awards ceremony, I had received more scholarship money than anybody except male athletes. I receive scholarships from the national merit foundation, the national science foundation, and several other foundations. Despite receiving so more academic scholarship money than anybody else in the 500 people in my class (and 75% of my class went to on to college), I still had to work 30 hours a week to be able to not take out a loan. When you are paid less than the minimum wage, your paycheck does not go very far. Having been through that experience, knowing how it prevented my developing social skills because I was working all the time rather than socializing with people my age, I think that college should be paid for plus living expensive. I think all jobs should have a living wage. The society will be better off if everyone can earn enough to eat a healthy diet, live in a safe place, and have some entertainment, as well as not worried about health care or medical bankruptcy.😢

[@theboyisnotright6312]

Good luck with that

[@art-hx6hq]

I guess nothing has changed throughout history kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3THXqdplpV2jMU

[@CullisaurusREX]

I paid off my student debt a few years ago, but I still can't afford very much. I constantly think of how my life would be different if I didn't take on that debt

[@winninglifeyo]

Mine will outlive me. I work in tech & live in ny & recent study determined that a $100k in NY is the equivalent to $32k a year. I am thankful I live in NY bc I don’t need a car (use to own used cars but maintenance, repair cost, insurance, inspection, gas, registration) it’s way cheaper to walk and take public transit I work to pay my loans and ever increasing rent (not gonna mortgage a $1.5 million 1 bedroom brownstone) & toward my health care. I love technology but I really wish I went into a trade that wasn’t zip code reliant in order to make a larger salary.

[@dylanakent]

Every job you apply for would be capped around $22 an hour. That's what life looks like without a degree.

[@matthewbennett1972]

@@dylanakent only because the value of a degree is grossly over inflated

[@TheVanillatech]

Theres a law here in England that a graduate has to be earning above the average national wage (which would be around £27k a year I think) before they start to pay off their loan. The interest keeps adding up, but if you stayed at precisely £26k a year - you would never pay off a penny. After so many years - I believe it's 10 years, the debt is eventually written off. As with all loans, the value is what are you getting out of it? I was forced to borrow £35k to go to University, and when I got there I was given a desk. That's it. A DESK, in a room with 11 other unfortunate hopefuls that believed paying £35k for a course would bring them something to work with. It didn't. We shared three tutors, only TWO of which had ANY illustration / art skills whatsoever (the 3rd was only good for cutting magazines apart and gluing the bits together with pritstick), and one of those two guys was never there. I saw him maybe five times in as many months, until he disappeared entirely - and was fired (but SIX MONTHS LATER!!!!) for never showing up. Apparently he was just drawing the salary, only coming into work once a week for a few hours, then shooting off to other "private" illustration jobs all over the country. Yet I, and the other 11 kids, was paying him out of our own pocket to teach us. Luckily the other guy was an absolute legend, and not only did I learn a lot from him, but he became a great friend and inspiration AND put his heart and soul into what he did - despite having the entire weight of that course on his shoulders alone. WAS THAT WORTH £35K??? ABSOLUTELY NOT! It's disgusting, should be illegal, probably IS illegal in many ways! And I felt so bad for the youngsters who turned in every day into that fuckpot of pre-ordained failure, and had landed themselves so much in debt. I made a huge effort to ensure I ALWAYS EARNED close to - but not beyond, that magical repayment limit. Whenver the government tried to attach a direct deduction from my earnings, which they did DOZENS of times, I'd march straight to HR and alert them - and they would quickly fill out the relevant forms to stop the deduction. After a few years - it simply disappeared.

[@rogerthornton4068]

I started LSU in 1972. The tuition was $200.00 a semester. I bought cheap used text books. My father was career military and died in service. I recieved gi benefits of $400.00 a month. I lived at home and was flush with money. Those were the good days. We didn't realize how well off we were.

[@lsowner10]

Guess what race of veterans was not allowed to use the GI Bill during that time…

[@josmotherman591]

@@lsowner10 Wow.... that's a hard one. Any hints?

[@lsowner10]

@@josmotherman591 they were pale and call themselves something that begins with “W!”

[@inquisitor4635]

I started community college in 1990. My part time job that I needed in order to eat prevented me for qualifying for financial aid as I made too much money. I remember my textbook cost me more than the actual class. And they would update the textbook in three years so the old one was insufficient. Usually offset collated by 15 or 20 pages just to make it difficult to use a used textbook if trying to save money. I eventually had to accept that I simply could not afford my dream of medical school. I did eventually get my bachelors and was the first person in my family to ever get a degree. I opened a business in a trade and did well.

[@archangele1]

You sound exactly like me when I was in college, but I never had much opportunity to find a good paying job after I got my AS and then went on to get my BS. I tried many things and worked hard but just never got a break.. I hear people talk of preparation meeting opportunity but opportunity is just another word for luck and some of us just plain have never had any luck when it came to finding a good paying job or starting a business.

[@shiddykiddy]

And we NEED American born doctors!

[@BigAl53750]

The whole textbook rort is all over the world! When I was at High School (from 1970-1974) our textbooks were loaned to us by the School, which owned them. When my children began HS in the 90’s, textbooks had to be purchased (at a cost here in Australia, of between $500 and $700 !) and these textbooks would be acceptable for only one year! This scam was perpetrated by the Education system here for years and it still goes on. And this was not for tertiary education, but basic High School education!

[@Janba32]

I started UCLA in February 1950. The tuition was $35 a semester. I transferred to UC Berkeley in September 1950. The tuition was $50. No one needed a student loan. I went to UC Berkeley at the time of loyalty oaths being foisted on the professors. I and a number of others fought against the loyalty oaths.

[@NorceCodine]

In 1998 I paid about $12K tuition at UCLA, which was already ranked in the top 15 schools in the nation (today the No.1. ranked public university.) Couple of years ago I was teaching at Texas Tech, which is one of the lowest ranked 2nd-tier schools in the country, it charges about $25K tuition for a year. The university president takes home 5 million dollars a year, the deans about 1.5 million. A Texas Tech degree is not worth the paper its printed on. That's what happened to higher education.

[@user-uy2vj5xe8l]

Agree I attended csl state university affordable Bachelor's degree

[@elyhandy6989]

The universities are in the profit making business and not education. Priorities, the football coaches at all these schools are the highest paid in the states.The sad state of where we are as a nation is the eltism that exists in hearts and mind.

[@QUINTUSMAXIMUS]

I don't see why people have to pay so much just to get an education. It's nonsense. And this is why enrollment is dropping. We don't want to be economic serfs, slaves to banks.

[@user-xq1wz3tp5z]

During every recession since Volker~, the governments (state & federal) have slashed support (subsidies) for education at all levels. Wages have scarcely increased; taxes have been serially decreased.

[@maxrobespierre9176]

College not only stopped being affordable, but now is mostly of no economic value to the vast majority of graduates.

[@marshadingle3550]

The point of education should never be "economic value" it should be about creating more informed citizens. Universities are not vocational schools.

[@maxrobespierre9176]

@@marshadingle3550 If that was truly the case, why do we need medical universities, and engineering universities? Anyone willing to spend the huge sums of cash required to get a 4 or 5 degree would not have any motivation to part with that cash so they “become better citizens”. And if you haven’t noticed, most graduates in these highly technical fields are really just technicians. They’re not professionals or philosophers.

[@africkinamerican]

@@marshadingle3550 That strikes me as a very elitest view of education. Who is supposed to be able to afford a University education with no economic payback? And what exactly are the non economic values that are obtained from these universities? The only comparable case I can think of is that religious believers pay to support seminaries that educate Clergy and missionaries. Is that what the universities are doing -- producing clergy for some sort of secular ideological church?

[@testtest2609]

College became a tool of debt slavery.

[@utubemewatch]

@@marshadingle3550 college & university, at this point, is solely about the economic benefits associated with that all important piece of paper, and the requisite sycophancy for “connections”. The liberal arts & humanities (the only disciplines where your claim could be true) are rancid - fully captured by ideological possession & motivated reasoning. Today they’re brimming with power hungry anti-enlightenment, illiberal post-modern subversives & neo-Marxist slacktivists. No one seeking a historically accurate & sincere liberal arts/humanities education needs a mendacious, captured western university. The hard sciences are absolutely about economic benefit, career & lifestyle. But the social sciences are poisoning even the hard sciences. I’d agree education is a lifetime pursuit. These institutions are failed, frivolous & corrupt fir all but the most rigorous hard sciences, medicine etc. regretfully the capture of even these disciplines is on full display post-Covid in 2023 (and well before that too). A single link is traced to the neo-fascist elitist capture and destruction of our education, medicine & healthcare, bureaucratic malfeasance, and degradation of economic opportunities for the multitudes.

[@idolhanz9842]

What kind of America is it when big screen TV's are $100 but a 4 year university degree will cost you a million dollars.

[@ericsmith1801]

Big educational decline.

[@scottgrohs5940]

The same America that gives you hundreds of channels in a cable subscription but all but maybe seven of them broadcast useless drivel designed to sedate you.

[@zacharyrupley3264]

As a college teacher of History and the Humanities for 15 years, paid little with no access to campus healthcare, and no hope of advancement anytime soon, that opening was like Chris reading my life. People ask me why I still teach. I do it because I love it and it needs doing.

[@eileenmc4746]

And American students dumbed down in history reality now. Son graduated Wells with history BA and now in Americorps. Later this Alaskan Native will find way to grad school or career.

[@eddiekulp1241]

School you work for ripping you off, money going somewheres

[@papaal7014]

they who can do, do. those who can't do, teach.?

[@zacharyrupley3264]

“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach”. - Aristotle.

[@l.w.paradis2108]

@@papaal7014 If you're so cynical, why aren't you rich?

[@dulynoted2427]

Colleges and Universities were virtually free at the time when Ronald Reagan was governor of California. After that, it all changed.

[@georgemead6608]

I graduated HS in 1969. My SS survivor's benefits were $256 permonth. Combined with a CA state scholarship of $1,000 per year ment that the full ride Regents scholarship that I also won was limited to a $500 honorarium because my financial need was ZERO.

[@williewonka6694]

Good point, a whole bunch of people going to school as a social event, learning nothing of future value, other than being politically brainwashed.

[@janetcohen9190]

Interesting comments. Thanks. I have no direct experiences of then, but have caught bits of trivia from time to time from older generations. I wonder if this has any truths: In mid late 1960s there were riots in Los Angeles arising out of various reasons and it led to SAWT type police systems. In same period there were increasing student protests. The protest topics were about social,

[@macvena]

The authors of failed education are all on the Left. It's they who controlled that sector and now they are without any rivals. It's entirely on them. They've cheated you, robbed you, lied to you, and you still support them. That's entirely on you.

[@aliceputt3133]

Reagan said they should charge tuition because a degree would make you one million dollars extra pay. I have 2 B.A.s and a M.A. and haven’t seen a dollar extra pay. Did do the Visiting Lecturer underpay, and later was paid 1/3 less than a degree less white male for doing the same job. Or rather I actually did the job but he took 4 hour lunches. I actually had to ignore my credentials so as not to disturb my male co-workers. Educated Women are scary.

[@DennisMurphey]

Having been born in 49 as l read and learn more from these great scholars I begin to realize and appreciate the times i was growing up and going to college was drafted and came out with the GI Bill and got a Masters. What a golden time to be a kid. To look ten years back or ten years forward from 1949 you can see that life would be dramatically different. Today i find unimaginable to achieve the things i have. Yes I can see the promise has been lost. And it is driven by Corp Greed influencing all aspects of America. Sadly.

[@edwardlarkin4279]

So good. Went to Southern Illinois U in 1968 for $80 a quarter with free books in the library. Any mone could go to school. Went to Colorado State and got a grad degree in Environmental Science for 2000 in 1974-5. Such wonderful years of learning. Today its a horror story for young adults. Really only for the wealthy or huge debt.

[@dereksupernaut]

plus the endless amounts of quality information on the internet often with video plus the affordability of paper back books really makes the college education a mind blowingly worthless product... fax!!!

[@kentauree]

The wealthy want everything for them self. Extreme greed........and greed is a sin, remember?

[@kentauree]

If your not rich your children will become slaves for some little greedy psycko.

[@Madronaxyz]

I was in undergraduate about the same time you were. However I was in Texas. My tuition was about triple what yours was. I made less than 60% of the federal minimum wage per hour, despite having a higher tuition. College was not affordable for people in Texas during the 1960s and 70's. Reaganomics was enforced in the South before Reagan was even president. There were a few very wealthy families and everybody else was poor, including the white people. The southern strategy is what they have imposed on the entire country now.

[@Madronaxyz]

​@@dereksupernaut college is supposed to be the place for you learn how to reason. The internet is great for just straight facts, if you can find actual facts. The internet is also good for Misinformation. When you are in a real college, with real people teaching you who have a good education, and where you can have discussions with real people who are your fellow students, it has so much more depth than can ever be given by a computer screen Education is always been limited by the oligarchs because education makes people more able to fight for their rights. There was a reason slaves or killed if they learn to read and right.

[@anthonyhunter6882]

Leaving out the impact of gilded sports programs, growth in administration, and endless construction projects with sweetheart deals is a serious oversight. The universities that use tuition and student loan money to pay for these non academic endeavors are committing legalized fraud

[@davidbouchard8963]

They literally said they skipped over a shitload of things for time and you didn’t even mention the racial component sooooo

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

The massive expansion of student loans, backed by the government, was designed to greatly expand the dollar in-flow into academia. Without this massive in-flow of available cash, they would not be able to raise tuition as few would be able to afford it. It is just another fleecing of the middle class, no different than what has happened to medical care.

[@treefrog3349]

The period in history discussed in this conversation was emblematic of the abrupt birth and rapid subsequent demise of genuine democracy in America. It has been on a steady decline ever since. We are now bordering on unabashed fascism.

[@mikearchibald744]

I don't know that I'd call that democracy, you could call it better but the mechanism was still the same, and people only voted once every couple of years for somebody else to make decisions, and only two parties had a hope. I don't think thats 'democracy'

[@shelleyhowell86]

@@mikearchibald744 Yes, it's a joke that "they" claim that we live in a Democracy. I don't think a person's ability to go to a court house and speak for 3 minutes constitutes a Democracy.

[@thomasdonovan3580]

The USA is a one party state, the Dems control the government and the MSM. A OPS is one step away from one person dictatorial rule.

[@aliceputt3133]

The string of assassinations of liberal leaders including the curious rash of plane crashes containing major liberals resulted in the timid, corporate, Democratic Party we have now.

[@CJ-gv6bq]

Universities are promoting social change to a neo-communist, fascist social system. A Environmental, Social and Governence framework created by Black Rock and the World Economic Forum in service to the United Nations agenda. This same group is now targeting public schools through UNESCO and the National Education Association Foundation, who are politically educating public school children in America using Transformational Social Emotional Learning into the New Leftist agenda.. History certainly repeats itself, as the new repressed society is anyone who wants to preserve America's social system.

[@ujean56]

The New American dream: Everything and everyone is for sale and everyone is a debtor.

[@leos8019]

I think that it's the old dream of slavery revamped for the modern age, but yes, that accurately depicts the American nightmare we live in today.

[@zoofeather]

This discussion is less about cost for colleges and more about political and social injustices

[@jimcarrington6744]

there is a good reason for that (read between the lines)

[@julierozo]

Please invite Ellen back to discuss more details!

[@beverlyweber171]

A few administrators and high ranking "professors" get HUGE bucks, while the majority of professors and adjunct instructors doing 90% of teaching get peanuts.

[@elbuggo]

The football coach is usually the highest earner.

[@MikeBNumba6]

@@elbuggo Only at the Power 5 schools. The football coaches don't make ish at low tier d1, d2, or d3 schools

[@LuckysLair]

and unpaid or peanuts paid, grad student instructors

[@dwwolf4636]

Quite irrelevant if admin staff numbers went up 100% and teaching staff only 10%. Bullshit jobs plain and simple.

[@sandrad9695]

Where does all the money go? Administrators, new rock-climbing walls? It’s a crazy system that desperately needs changing.

[@ralfyman]

I thought the interview was going to explain why tuition went up.

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

The tuition rise is just another way to fleece the middle class. As the primary way to now "make it" is to get a degree or two, then the Uni's could exert pricing power to collect more tuition. Since fewer students can afford it, the government and bankers step in and make student loans more freely available and larger. Academia is not much different than medical industry, it's all about getting as much money out of the economy and into their hands. The fly in the ointment is that now a college degree is no guarantee of anything unless you are in few select fields. So the model is collapsing as people wake up.

[@robfielding8566]

Me too. Not a word of it had anything to do with why tuitions go up. Generalizations like "for-profit is bad" are dumb statements. Computer chip foundries are for-profit, and prices for the same thing cut in half every 2 years. Car insurance prices don't rise exponentially. Places with middle-men acting as sticker-shock-absorbers (ie: college and housing bank loans, health insurance) are the problem.

[@TravisRiver]

Would love to hear more about how tuitions rose, which we didn't get to

[@calscottoh]

It's due to corruption. It doesn't take a 30-minute video to explain what happened.

[@brianatippens3010]

It’s not just corruption. It’s because education went from being a public good to a private business. Privatization almost always leads to higher costs and lower standards. Just look at healthcare. The us spends the most money per capita on healthcare than any other developed nation while also having the worst health outcomes. I don’t understand how people have yet to figure out that privatization isn’t the answer. It goes a little further than just chalking it up to corruption.

[@richlaue]

Back in 1974 I remember the local community collage raising the rate to $17.50 a credit.

[@mothermovementa]

WHOA

[@hamadilawson4396]

I remember the early 200's the city colleges in Chicago was only 30.00 per credit! And at one point it was nearly free!

[@johndunne7900]

Once the schools no longer had responsibility for loans that students took out the colleges relied on the federal government to guarantee loans the colleges immediately raised their tuition cost through the roof its time the colleges had more skin in the game. Also the conditions of those loans must be changed so the colleges and universities have more responsibility towards their students after graduation.

[@arnystieber732]

This interview caused me to draw together two forces - the establishment who feared democracy and free speech, and the rich who were working to cut their taxes. During the Eisenhower years the richest were paying 94% income tax.

[@ujean56]

There was also far more diversity within disciplines. The university enjoyed a very short period of the truly "universal" pursuit of knowledge. All gone because now, "it's the economy stupid".

[@haleymoore6684]

Thank you for putting the REAL TRUTH OUT THERE!

[@EarthColonyNet]

Fantastic interview. She deserves a part two.

[@barquerojuancarlos7253]

Absolutely!

[@alemayehusolomon941]

Would love a more in depth discussion. She has many important things to say 👌🏿👍🏿

[@paulsansonetti7410]

Antiwar ? Democrats invented super delegates after 1972 to make sure a pacifist like McGovern could never win the nomination again ,and even thf squad are prowar warpigs these days,and forever war is basically official policy Feminism? Go rwad " the two income trap " by Liz Warren and her daufhter where they explain jow much feminism has benefited corporations while doing almost nothing for women Woken have never been as fat,unheakthy,mentally ill,infertile ,poor as they are in 2023 See " wtf happened in 1971 " for the receipts oriving the bottom 90% of Americans have gotten steadily poorer since 1971 Racial justice ? Why has absolutely everything gotten worse for American blacks since the CRA ? More poverty,more crime,more illegitimacy,more murder,more time in jail Less literacy,less employment

[@cheri238]

💯correct. A lot of information about the Freedom March at Berkeley.

[@juanmonge7418]

Do it quickly. She looks quite elderly.

[@spacetimemalleable7718]

The U.S. govt should realize the quality decline at the universities is a national securty and competitive problem. This portends huge problems now and in the future. While our competitors such as China have been building their universities to make it world class, esp. in STEM fields, the U.S. is floundering/declining. it is living on it's past laurels and complacent. Guess the U.S. needs a huge Chinese sputnik moment but it may already be too little too late. Technology depends on highly educated people in STEM fields. Perhaps the U.S. wants to be more dependent on China for tech and innovation. It is very myopic thinking by the U.S. Quality higher education is a key to our competitiveness. It should be a minimal expense if the student has the qualifications, as in the '60s.

[@matthewkopp2391]

At the University of Illinois as one example, each year they host 6,000 Chinese students which is 30% enrollment. They are paid to attend by the Chinese government but the Illinois and Federal taxpayers actually subsidizes them. Meanwhile US and Illinois citizens can’t afford to go. Most return to China and some stay here and get professional jobs which is out of reach for US citizens who can’t afford to go. Then politicians wonder how China became so advanced? The US corporations gave them the technology, funded them, and the US and Chinese governments paid for their education. And the only response of politicians is to make war threats against China. It is not just myopic. US politicians are for the most part completely dissociated from reality. But there is another factor in this equation. The US education system is far more misinformation propaganda compared to China. Marxist Leninism as an ideology is in part about examining the contradictions of capitalism. So they make an honest and detailed assessment of economic conditions both there, here and across the globe. The USA has a Cold War education which is about misinformation. So not only do most citizens have no clue in regards to historical reality, the most highly educated Yale graduates increasingly have no clue about historical reality and contemporary reality. You can’t win with abject ignorance.

[@winninglifeyo]

The politicians are rich & pampered from the second they’re elected. They’re sheltered by American decline effecting the citizens. It’s always been a small and we ain’t in it. The decline will only continue till we become a banana republic

[@robertpearson9137]

The U.S. government is employed (bought and paid for) by transnational oligarchs who don't care about this country. It's not myopic thinking. They know exactly what they are doing. It is arguably the most corrupted government in the world when the scale of effect is considered.

[@jr10spro]

College is not needed and actually is detrimental to an unquestioning worker drone society... The ultra rich " job creators"... want people to follow orders and sit in cubicles doing as they're told. Tbh, this is more the "issue" in all of education.

[@michaelcap9550]

Colleges concentrate on majors ending in "studies" that are useless.

[@traviscutler9912]

Hedges is such a wealth of information along with his guests. So important.

[@susanmercurio1060]

One thing that I finally realized was that we made the same mistake in the 60s that the people who wanted to leave the British empire in the 1760s: we thought that if we made enough fuss, they would come to the negotiating table. We and they didn't realize that they thought of us as street sweepings and would *never* negotiate. All we did was to poke a stick into a sleeping bear's den and wake up a conservative backlash that lasts to this day.

[@chrisredlich9086]

I attended a prestigious private university of west coast states near the end of the 60s. I was able to pay for my room and board and tuition with the work. I did every summer. I’m trying to figure out how much better education is today that requires people to pay 10 to 20 times those numbers.

[@douglasmacneil5230]

Since the 1970’s the amount spent on college educators has remained constant but the amount spent on college administration has doubled. The administrators need to be gutted, and the Universities need to focus on education.

[@cupajoy8498]

Wish there was more discussion re topic of affordable college.

[@cupajoy8498]

@armamentarmedarm1699 uh, that was the actual.title of the show.

[@cupajoy8498]

Exactly. And they did not discuss it. They talked about everything.else. my point.

[@ike1089]

Great interview! We need a part 2!

[@user-ti3vp9mt3z]

The 60s and 70s were the good old days of higher education. It was affordable, and there was academic freedom and job security for faculty. I was a student then and it was enlightening and liberating all around. One of my profs was openly socialist. I wish higher ed was like this today bc it creates well rounded, thinking citizens.

[@faustinreeder1075]

Most professors are full blown communists. They don’t teach. They indoctrinate. College has no value. It’s a bad investment

[@realpcpayne5847]

Same here, in fact one professor had a huge picture of Hitler (which I thought was a bit shocking) on his wall in his office... But affordable, Heaven's yes!

[@roberthodge6711]

After 16 minutes, I’m still waiting to hear about the reason college is no longer affordable.

[@peterbarrett5496]

Cuz the student loans. They keep upping the price and ppl keep paying that price, the student loans make people not realize the burden they are taking on, the price will contour to go higher until they have vacant seats at the university

[@thomasblackmon5722]

Ronald Regan!

[@kuroyama95]

We need a part two. This woman has a gold mind of information. I could listen to her tell history for hours!

[@J3unG]

She rambled. Hedges even looked annoyed.

[@thetawaves48]

Not mentioned was the GI Bill, which sent many American men to college who most likely would never have attended college. It created a generation of fathers and grandfathers who were college educated by the government.

[@gsmith6595]

It was definitely one of the reasons that it became a bonus to serving, mostly for white men to start out and probably why they took all free colleges away.

[@DockingFreedmanRecords]

Yeah she mentioned it though

[@kimmacdermotroe2957]

Interesting but does explain the mechanisms that allowed colleges to raise tuition 3 to 4 times faster than wages.

[@star-gs9kh]

Going to school should be free for every American.

[@PatrickCraig-lh5is]

Wasted ten years of my life as an adjunct instructor of developmental math at a local community college. With rare exceptions among my co-workers, the overall perspective of students was 1) they are a source of money, and 2) they are a nuisance. Whenever I tried to suggest better ways of teaching, I was either ignored or told "well, you can do that in YOUR classroom, but just make sure the standard curriculum gets taught." In other words, shut up and teach. Is it irony that many of these for-profit operations are now removing the term "community" from their names due to it being a stigma? Student tuition is now going to updating the signage around campuses!

[@julianmarsh8384]

As a former teacher, I can only concur with what you are saying...I had to go overseas to international schools in China to get a) better pay and benefits and b) to really be able to teach! American education like so many other aspects of our culture, is in disarray...

[@adityatyagi4009]

Very good interview. However, one glaring fact which I'm surprised was omitted is the massive expansion in the availability of student loans which caused colleges and universities to jack up tuition because they knew they'd be getting essentially free money.

[@truthseeker6541]

I always tune in to Chris Hedges for the real news leaving no stones unturned in his quest for truth. Ellen Shrecker is an outstanding guest.

[@africkinamerican]

College stopped being affordable, in short, because government, over decades, almost completely eliminated any vestige of an actual market from the "higher education" sector . It promoted cartelization of the education sector and lavishly subsidized it rather than allowing the market to determine success and failure.

[@jimcarrington6744]

a very polite way of saying the truth

[@theboyisnotright6312]

You sound like a brain dead MBA. Not everything is a market. I would argue it is the marketing that destroyed higher education.

[@thec9424]

Or... The government realized that higher education was a place of ideas. Students began to protest "corruption/racial injustice/free speech" so the government stopped funding it so that only the rich could afford it. Corruption and religion need an uneducated population to thrive.

[@TheVanillatech]

I recently started work in education, due to the absolute catastrophe I witnessed at the local schools here in Hull, Yorkshire. It was as much a personal investigation at first, I wanted to witness first hand the causes of the absolutely abysmal pass rates of the 1500 or so students. After a few months, I was hooked, and started to put my heart and soul into the job. I met GOOD teachers, in fact some were even GREAT teachers, and had no choice but to fall in line beside them and fight tooth and nail both the students, their ignorant parents (they themselves victims of the same system just a generation earlier) and the faculty who seemed to have first loyalty to their employer, the "benefactor" who "owned" the academy - in order to protect their ludicriously dis-proportionate salary. But I have to admit, for every one legendary teacher who should have been carried to and from work, rose petals lining their journey tossed there by the headmaster himself, there were at least 4-5 nuggets who simply didn't want to be there. SHOULD NOT have been there. Who could barely even pass a paper in their relative subjects themselves, and gave off every impression that the only reason they staggered in every morning was for that £35k a year wage, and from the terror of getting a physical job - even though that would probably be the most useful work they could do, given their skillsets. I'm an average guy. Father of two. Left school early (although I did have the luck of passing the scholorship exam for the best private school in the North East) and worked at a hotel serving drinks, followed by building and groundwork, then as a stonemason around ex-prisoners who were tougher themselves than the stone we made. After that a short stint in a call centre selling electricity until, after quitting that soul-rending gig, found myself working at the school helping to teach English. I stopped reading for fun some 10 years previously. There is NO REASON why I, an absolute beginner of an educator without even a degree, should be running rings around 80% of the teaching staff in a major UK Secondary, the 3rd largest in our city! NO REASON! Except that, as I have said before, it is the highest priority of the ruling elite, who hijacked and bought our State education system over a decade ago, to ensure that the peasants are NOT educated to the level of becoming critical thinkers. That is exactly what they DON'T want! I take pride in doing my best every day to fuck up their plans!

[@boombot934]

Great discussion, thank you!

[@dnickaroo3574]

The US Military & Pharmaceutical Industries require the money.

[@iancormie9916]

One must also realize that university administration costs have ballooned beyond historical levels. One must also question what is being taught - how much value can society gain from students specializing in Shakespeare or the grievence majors who scream patriarchy at every opportunity. How can anyone look at the demonstrations at Evergreen University and conclude that their tax money is being well spent?

[@missshroom5512]

The corporations don’t want people educated unfortunately 😔🌎☀️💙

[@pazitor]

Paid my way through grad school in the late 70s with summer and weekend work at a union job. That isn't possible at today's rubbish wages and sky-high tuition.

[@milhouse9003]

The title of this video is misleading because the focus is not on college affordability or the student debt crisis and lack of decent jobs but on Professor Schrecker's history of the 50s and 60s.

[@sirqe6791]

They explored tangents and barely addressed the main theme, of why college is no longer affordable for many.😕

[@DRourk]

For the same reason a lot of medical care stopped being affordable. It was subsidized by government.

[@nickknez8294]

Thanks! I look forward to listening to the audio book some day. As for college, go into the trades, get a library card. College isn’t worth the investment anymore.

[@Dihorse371]

Use to be affordable bc Govt subsidies. Now the US income is not growing fast enough and US Admin (both GOP and Dem alike) put prioity in military over education.

[@mgabriel2636]

As someone who used to work in student loans, its the Government backed student loans and grants. Big E wants that easy cash!

[@dogeared100]

Big E?

[@ponderingnugget]

@@dogeared100 Education I believe.

[@mgabriel2636]

@@dogeared100 Edumatation.

[@terryrobinson2324]

that is exactly the reason.

[@paulsansonetti7410]

Antiwar ? Democrats invented super delegates after 1972 to make sure a pacifist like McGovern could never win the nomination again ,and even thf squad are prowar warpigs these days,and forever war is basically official policy Feminism? Go rwad " the two income trap " by Liz Warren and her daufhter where they explain jow much feminism has benefited corporations while doing almost nothing for women Woken have never been as fat,unheakthy,mentally ill,infertile ,poor as they are in 2023 See " wtf happened in 1971 " for the receipts oriving the bottom 90% of Americans have gotten steadily poorer since 1971 Racial justice ? Why has absolutely everything gotten worse for American blacks since the CRA ? More poverty,more crime,more illegitimacy,more murder,more time in jail Less literacy,less employment

[@bsure4]

this is not about affordability

[@stanleykubrick8786]

The business of education making people feel continuously inadequate. Thank you for another insightful episode

[@margaretames6522]

I came of age in New York City in the 1960s, although I was too young to know as much as revealed in this discussion. I attended The City College of NY (CCNY) that was dubbed the Communist College of NY because Julius Rosenberg studied there. As aware as I thought I was, this interview put what I knew and experienced into a larger context. I appreciate hearing interviews with people well versed in the events of these times and cannot thank you enough for providing a platform for authors like Ellen Schrecker.

[@jay-by1se]

Two take aways. The FBI was always a political force against democracy. And the point of advanced degrees was to stay in school forever as a teacher.

[@davidotness6199]

Administrative positions not only proliferated, but their salaries and benefits skyrocketed as the boards of regents, et al utilized the old "Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" and the head-hunting for "star" university presidents became grotesque in the salary offerings presented. Tenured positions became adjuncts, upwards of 75% to this day. Student loans became a new big business and the U.S. Congress passed bills favoring the always-lobbying loan institutions, including the non-bankruptcy clauses that plague the nation to this day. As the higher expenses began to exclude so many U.S. citizens, nations---especially China---flooded the USA with their own students, completely subsidized by their government, so the costs that kept growing mattered not. The U.S.major university system became a placement center for China---to the exclusion of U.S. citizens. It's the Benjamins, baby....

[@_nimrod92]

One way to fix this is to make colleges be on the hook for the student loan as well unless very extreme circumstances occur where a student can't finish their degree, but then again this might create another problem in itself. It's truly a very complicated mess.

[@tcornettomaha]

20 minutes in and still uave not heard anything about the cost of college

[@psikeyhackr6914]

We could have created a K-12 National Recommend Reading List decades ago. And even though double-entry accounting is 700 years old no authority advocates mandatory accounting in the schools. There is an article from 2003 that says 5th graders can learn accounting as well as college students.

[@davidhollingsworth1847]

This truly revealing interview should have been expanded into two, if not, three parts. One can tell that Dr. Ellen Schrecker had much more to convey. That said, thank you.

[@billkallas1762]

When I went to school in the 60's (State School), Tuition was only $300 a year. Room and board was about $900 a year. Books were probably about $100 a year. I worked in the Summer to pay for a good part of the Fees....After I graduated, I believe that I was about $1,000 in debt.

[@patrickmoran687]

I never heard where the money is going that students are paying. I heard lack of government support and cost cutting, but not how colleges are spending the revenue they receive.

[@thomashahn631]

My college's tuition shot up ten fold in 40 years: a UC school. My guess is less state subsidies, more bureaucracy and finally the business ethos that stuck its tentacles in all public spaces: maximize profits / reduce costs on workers/staff. All the profits seem to go to never ending construction projects at my UC school over the years. The new campus has an outwardly wealthier appearance, geared towards the upper strata of society that it now serves. The on campus institute, built in the early 90s, pushing NAFTA and corporate (free) trade was the first sign of the Universities new perspective.

[@anonymousanonymous7304]

Its not worth it. They just take advantage of people's natural propensity to learn, and try to push them down.

[@ronaldharding3927]

What happened to me that cost me so much money was the truncation of state revenue sharing under Reagan's welfare fund to the wealthy. I was paying $16.50/hr in 1980. Reagan's trickle down raised my tuition 3×s to $46/hr January 1981. States had to garner monies to fund federally mandated programs. They went after it in public services like state universities, sales taxes, property taxes, and the like.

[@rickstorm8948]

College should be cheap, so we have lots of educated people that benefits the country....

[@zm35r2bn]

Very sad what they're doing in our colleges

[@nancykurtz7333]

Education was always cheered as something you earned. In the 80’s, it became something anyone could buy, for the right price

[@michaelhutchison944]

Thanks for this show. I started at Junior College in 67. I was 20 minutes from Berkeley. Involved politically and a history major taking the new courses like Afro American history, and Mexican American History. Combined with civil rights, draft and war protests, it was like a time of renaissance. I just ordered her book.

[@Bob-qk2zg]

I graduated in 1981. The cost of five years in university was $8900... and I got a STEM degree. What's it cost today? $100K, $150K, $200K, more?

[@jocosus3]

29:20 The connection between the decrease in government funding of education, the skyrocketing levels of student loan debt and the lack of a living wage for non-tenured university staff should get more coverage in our society. #MericaFirstWorst

[@myrasmama]

My daughter just turned 18 and she wants to start college in the fall and I am terrified about the debt that she is going to accumulate starting with signing the dotted line.

[@nadiajr1500]

She can attend a city university or a state university. They are affordable. Many students in city universities work so that they can pay their tuition fees themselves. As a result, they don't have any tuition debt like those who attend other universities either ivy leagues or not. It's more of a travesty if graduates have crazy tuition debts from non-ivy league universities.

[@nadiajr1500]

She can also consider to study in Europe such as Finland and Germany. It's affordable even for international students.

[@myrasmama]

@@nadiajr1500 thank you for your suggestions. There is a community college in our area that she will attend, but the university of Cincinnati is not cheap. You do two years of Community College and get all your liberal arts stuff out of the way and then you move on to the university for the rest of your major for two more years to get the bachelors. None of it is cheap especially when you are broke to begin with. Hopefully there's some good grants out there for her that will take up some of the burden, at least for books and transportation etc...

[@nadiajr1500]

@@myrasmama I just searched University of Cincinnati and found out that the in-state tuition fee is $13K, which is indeed more expensive than the average fee of city universities. Just letting you know that at City University of New York (CUNY), the fees are much less. CUNY community college only costs around $5K. The challenging part is to find a place to live in New York City. In early 2000s, college dormitory costs $1K per month and the units were limited. However, there are many affordable options outside the city but still in the New York state, such as Brooklyn and Queens. The subway is reliable and affordable, so students can go to college with train easily. CUNY also provides grants for students. Besides that, many of them work so that's how they managed to graduate without any college debt. After graduation, many work at international organisations because their offices are usually located in New York City. So this is the best advantage of studying at CUNY. I hope this info is helpful. All the best to your daughter.

[@evinchester7820]

Have her look at joining the Reserves or National Guard for tuition assistance.

[@paulreagor6914]

Its too bad Ellen Schrecker doesn't realize that the teaching load of the typical professor has gone from 10 hours a week to 1 since the 60's. Or that the administrative staff has grown from 5 to 50 as governments have heaped on regulation after regulation. Or that these 2 factors have directly lead to costs that are 10 times what they were.

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

I read somewhere that the increase in Administration was at least partly self-generated by the Administration. They took over non-teaching chores that the professors had been shouldering on top of their teaching and research, which then gave them more power over the professors. They then used that to grow their ranks and start bullying the professors. (I’ve heard first hand accounts of the latter.) When those professors left they hired adjuncts and here we are.

[@kitrichardson2165]

My tuition at the University of Maryland for one semester was $440 at the beginning of the 1980s. So $880 a year Now it’s $11,500 for if you live in state and it’s $40,000 a year of your from out of state I made enough working all summer to pay for my tuition. Very few people are doing that today.

[@ortforshort7652]

Just like in every business in America, the administrators took over and were allowed to abuse their positions and pay themselves a fortune. Administrators add zero value to the eductational process and should be a minor expense. Instead, they eat up the lion's share of the revenue - because they can, not because they should.

[@Kaditsu-Chronicles]

I weep for my country and the one I envisioned we would be living in after the success hoped for following the activist eras of anti racism and anti war and free speech on campuses through the 60s and 70s .

[@Inglesemente]

Education is one of the cheapest services that one can think of; all you need to teach English, Math, History, etc... to someone is a piece of paper and a pencil. The reason we pay so much for education these days is because we have to pay for all the stuff that gravitates around education, i.e. administrative personnel, insurance, building maintenance, etc... Universities have become a source of income for employees of any kind from secretaries to janitors, to cops, to nurses, you name it, so paying for those people's salary is the real reason why it's so expensive. It is not Reagan's fault (the boogeyman of the left) at all. Try and say to all the people who are employed at universities that there will be cuts and job losses because we need to make the tuition cheaper ... they will raise hell. Also, the government providing student loans is another cause of increase in the tuition because the universities administrators know that if they raise tuition every year, the government will adjust the student loans that they hand out accordingly. The first step to bring down student tuition would be to close (or at least limit) the river of money that the government hands out in student loans every year to students.

[@briantremblay9157]

Love your work Chris.. I feel sorry for these people that pay for education and get brain washed for the purpose of a foot stool. I can buy the same books (and do) watch free lectures and learn at my own pace. I would never want a job where I would have to actively support the corrupt system on both sides of the boarder.

[@winninglifeyo]

I got degrees in Cybersecurity. What brainwashing do you believe I received in university?

[@leelindsay5618]

Border?

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

People don’t get brainwashed in college, that’s a scare tactic by politicians who don’t want voters with critical thinking skills. And I love all the interesting and educational material that is freely available these days, but it’s not the same thing at all as the kind of mind breaking work you have to put into the comprehensive studies required in college. And you are forced to develop skillsets in just a few years that might take decades of hard knocks to learn otherwise.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

25:50 - Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh was our guy! He fought with us against the Japanese! We even promised to support Vietnamese independence in 1945 after VJ Day! That changed with the Eurocentric State Department said we needed a strong France to oppose the Soviet Union, so our advisers were at Dien Bien Phu in 1954!!

[@JJ-he7yy]

There are a lot of takeaways from this video: 1. It is amazing how much correlation there is between Mccrathyism and what is happening today: *Instead of loyalty oaths, we have diversity statements *If you don't go along with the woke left on campus, you are fired and blacklisted *Instead of J Edgar Hoover collecting data, it is our government along with big tech as we know from the Twitter files *Students and faculty shut down speaker on campus if a group of them don't like the speaker *With "Equity" we have racism - It may be between Asians suing another group because they didn't get into elite schools in favor of another group due to ethnicity or, in the Case of Stanford, only 22% of the student body is white while the general population is 60% white 2. The cost of tuition is not only about government reducing funding. *Many collages have HUGE endowments that benefit primarily the trustees and Wall Street money managers and are not used to reduce tuition. * Technology allows courses to be delivered online where the cost should be reduced but is not * Collages have bloated administrators - Stanford has 15000 Administrators for 16000 students . The average University today has 45 people working on DEI programs * Mitch Daniels who was head of Purdue, never raised tuition during his time there The title of this video is mislabeled because it speaks little about the cost of collage

[@africkinamerican]

Excellent points . The only "blacklisting" occurring today is coming from the cultural Marxists. It seems every school is getting a Title IX and "DIE" office in addition to the already bloated admin. When even "private" orgs are looking and behaving like government bureaucracies that is a telltale sign that government and government-like incentives are at work. And the best way to raise the price of a good is to massively subsidize it, push artificial demand for it (e.g. endless "YOU MUST GO TO COLLEGE" propaganda) while also limiting competition -- insulating it from normal market discipline . A lot of people believe the market is an evil, and we have too much of it, and the only problem with everything is a shortage of government and government subsidy. While in reality, the market is indispensable in producing and distributing goods and we have far too *little* of it in operation today precisely because the massive government sector suffocating it.

[@jonahsingh5645]

"woke left" yikes dude

[@mikeborrelli193]

This should be the number one comment on this video.

[@erniemathews5085]

Born in 1942, I saw this whole sad story. I remember when Gov. Reagan started charging tuition in the universities in 1974 to "keep the troublemakers out".

[@jimcarrington6744]

I bet you never knew he was CIA his entire life, starting before he graduated.

[@CaptivaIsland1944]

Reagan destroyed this country!! PERIOD!!!

[@CaptivaIsland1944]

Reagan destroyed this country! PERIOD!!!!!

[@VERYPURPLE]

Ellen, thank you so much your interview was very informative.

[@TighelanderII]

State schools in California were just about free until Prop 13 passed in 1978. With less money coming in, services were reduced and fees were raised, like college tuition. Prop 13 lead to the state adopting the horrible idea of a state lottery. It also pushed localities to replace the lost revenue by trying to get more sale tax, and they did this by approving lots of strip malls. This resulted in a Strip Mall crash in the late Eighties.

[@ronmackinnon9374]

It also incentivized local police forces to resort more and more to 'asset forfeiture.'

[@TighelanderII]

@@ronmackinnon9374 Hadn't thought of that. I guess I thought that the cops were like the Military in that they always had the money they needed and more.

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

Yeah, I don’t know what the solution is on property taxes. Bad things happen when there is no money for schools and law enforcement. But home taxes have become frighteningly high in many states, and I suspect that it’s a trickle down effect of less money being collected from high income earners. States used to get more money from the federal government, and local schools used to get more money from the state. Now people are being taxed out of their homes instead.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

4:30 - J. Edgar Hoover had dossiers on just about everyone. Hoover had information on all those who were considered to be important (politically, socially or otherwise). Hoover had files on Nixon & Goldwater too.

[@Papawcanner]

He kept the files in his purse .

[@paulsansonetti7410]

Hoover was actually a front man for the ADL of B'nai Brith,see Whitney Webb's book for the receipts See " the kings of garbage" article by Ames for how the ADL has blackmailed or compiled dossiers on almost the entire US left wing

[@tobiasl830]

Will look to get the book, Thank you Chris and Ellen

[@joeowczarzak2819]

Bloated bureaucracy, athletics, Club Med Ed facilities, too much concern for research over teaching, price gouging....

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

To do research, professors have to get grants. Those grants pay the professor’s salary (so the university doesn’t have to pay it) plus the university also gets a large percentage of the grant. So research _decreases_ university costs rather than increases them.

[@mikescanlan7326]

Over halfway through this and still nothing on how/why college tuition rose to such prohibitively expensive levels. Waist of time.

[@BuhodePiedra]

Truly shameful! I watched it all disintegrate being born in the 80’ with older siblings. UCSC was zero letter grades only written reviewed students, and affordable as was rent in town.. but the time I got there.. 2002.. thousands per quarter going up 15% per quarter! Rent completely unaffordable! Letter grades! No professors, only adjunct faculty etc etc. Now look? Nobody can think critically. Nobody can tell the difference between sponsored content and actual journalism etc etc.

[@BookofJob3XVII]

I truly believe that college should be free for everyone who wants to attend, it benefits our society more. Creating new jobs, ideas, boosting innovations, and equality.

[@Too-Odd]

Only for those who are prepared to go, and they should be better prepared to go at elementary, middle, and high school.

[@nadiajr1500]

College used to be free in the US just like in many European countries. Years ago, I met someone who was in her 70s who told me she didn't pay a dime when she studied at a city university.

[@thec9424]

It's hard to have corruption and religion if most of the population is educated. It takes a braindead citizenry to allow something like lobbyists.

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

You know I think it was widely understood at one point that college education benefited the whole country, not just the person being educated. That’s why I find this growing right wing hostility towards education really terrifying. Politicians are undermining education at every level now, K-12 as well as college.

[@shazamshazamshazam696]

Reagan's huge 1981 tax cut for the wealthiest was used to stop federal tax funds from being given to all public and private universities. The tax cut included the introduction of private for profit student loan program, a change from direct federal loans for students.

[@shazamshazamshazam696]

Yes, exactly.

[@aliannarodriguez1581]

We just thought he was lovable but not very bright duffer in the 80s. It took decades for me to realize how his policies had altered the country. What was really weird was waking up one day and reading that younger congressmen, who would have been babies in the 80s, saw him as some kind of superhero. They were putting his name on airports and buildings before he was even dead (which set a new precedent that makes me very uncomfortable).