The Coming Meltdown in College Education - Mark Cuban

[valpo04]

The Coming Meltdown in College Education & Why The Economy Won't Get Better Any Time Soon

This is what I see when i think about higher education in this country today:

Remember the housing meltdown ? Tough to forget isn't it. The formula for the housing boom and bust was simple. A lot of easy money being lent to buyers who couldn't afford the money they were borrowing. That money was then spent on homes with the expectation that the price of the home would go up and it could easily be flipped or refinanced at a profit.  Who cares if you couldn't afford the loan. As long as prices kept on going up, everyone was happy. And prices kept on going up. And as long as pricing kept on going up real estate agents kept on selling homes and finding money for buyers.

Until the easy money stopped.  When easy money stopped, buyers couldn't sell. They couldn't refinance.  First sales slowed, then prices started falling and then the housing bubble burst. Housing prices crashed. We know the rest of the story. We are still mired in the consequences.

Can someone please explain to me how what is happening in higher education is any different ?

Its far too easy to borrow money for college.  Did you know that there is more outstanding debt for student loans than there is for Auto Loans or Credit Card loans ? Thats right. The 37mm holders of student loans have more debt than the 175mm or so credit card owners in this country and more than the all of the debt on cars in this country. While the average student loan debt is about 23k. The median is close to $12,500. And growing. Past 1 TRILLION DOLLARS.

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[valpotx]

He does have a point in some of his arguments.  Being in a hiring manager capacity, I see many resumes of people who have been working what we would consider high school jobs for 2-3 years after their degree was completed.  I don't envy those people that have come out of college in the last 2-3 years, or the next 2-3 years...

[bbtds]

I recently heard that UIC was thinking of changing their name because they are associated with the University of Illinois in Champaign too often.

Illinois Obama University

With the state of student borrowing and the economy maybe being named after Obama and having the initials IOU isn't very intelligent.   

[VULB#62]

Not fair!   Many students in college (and those who are defaulting at record rates) qualified for the loan programs pre Obama.

However, your point -- IUC is still better than Chicago Circle -- is a slam dunk 

[StlVUFan]

Not fair!   Many students in college (and those who are defaulting at record rates) qualified for the loan programs pre Obama.

However, your point -- IUC is still better than Chicago Circle -- is a slam dunk 

They're only "Chicago Circle" in the confused mind of Ed Farmer (who to this day insists that the Cincinnati Reds play in the All-American Ballpark).

[bbtds]

IUC is still better than Chicago Circle

How about ICU?  Illinois Chicago University?

Which reminds me of a story about skier Peek-A-Boo Street. As you may know she was seriously hurt in a skiing accident and it took her several years to recover. She was so grateful to the hospital and hospital personnel that helped her recover that she donated a large amount of money to the hospital. So the hospital in gratitude named a department after her.

























Peek-A-Boo ICU. 


Kind of gets you right where it hurts!   

[vuweathernerd]

well played, bbtds. that was good for a chuckle.

[valporun]

No pun intended, right, bbtds?

[blawson]

this is a really sad truth and it is something that is really happening to our education, it is slowly taken for granted through time and a lot of students do not take education as important as it should be that is why this meltdown  is not far from happening to our education. i do hope that something will be done to prevent this from happening so that education will not take a back seat in our society becasue this is something that is very important