Les Leopold - 5 Ways Wall Street Is Putting the Squeeze on American Students
March 14, 2012 The damage to our educational infrastructure is growing, according to Catherine Rampell's chilling report in the New York Times. As state funding has dwindled, public colleges have raised tuition and are now resorting to even more desperate measures — cutting training for jobs the economy needs most.
She describes how badly needed engineering and nursing school facilities are being cut to the bone even though these two fields are begging for trained college graduates. At the same time, Rampell reports that state higher education tuitions are rising, programs are being cut and students are stumbling out of college under a mountain of debt. As she correctly points out, the economic health of our society is based on our investments in education.
Economists have found that higher education benefits communities even more than it benefits the individual receiving the degree. Studies show that an educated populace leads to faster economic growth and benefits the poorest workers the most. Much of the post-World War II economic boom, for example, has been attributed to increased college enrollment courtesy of the GI Bill.
Read More:
