Perry's $10,000 degree

[krasnoludek]

Rick Perry made some headlines by announcing his challenge to offer a college degree that only costs $10,000 total, including textbooks, over the course of 4 years. I wouldn't call it a proposal since Perry didn't suggest concrete ways to reduce the price; he just said colleges should think of ways to do it. The NYT then had a Room for Discussion

Comments

[quique12]

Add me to the dislike-Rick-Perry line. One of the things that bugs me about Rick Perry, is how he keeps talking about cutting unnecessary spending from the government, but then he has several bodyguards and takes them (and his family) on a trip to China "for government reasons". First of all, it is illegal for a governor to engage in any sort of treaty with foreign countries, second of all, who in China is going to know who he is? Most people in the US don't know who Rick Perry is, why would people outside the country know.
Hypocrisy is one of the things I hate the most.

[oxeador]

I started college in 1994. The price for one year for a math or physics major was about 500 euros for the student and 2000 euros for the state.

[krasnoludek]

I assume this college was in Europe. Costs are curbed in Europe for a number of reasons

[oxeador]

Your reasons for why college is less expensive in Europe are mostly correct, I believe. There is money for fellowships (basically a waiver of tuition) but that costs much less than in America because tuition is cheaper in the first place

[krasnoludek]

Ah, I didn't phrase my sentiments correctly since we seem to be describing the same situation. What I found "laughable" was how little was required of students: no homework needed to be done or handed in, there were no quizzes, etc. Just a big exam at the end that tested them on the material and they either pass or fail it. The grade was based on the performance on one or two measures. Yes, this process leads many students to become mature because they have to plan out their studies for the entire semester, but conversely, it causes many students to fail because they underestimate how much time they need to devote (e.g., party too much) or don't realize their deficiencies in understanding the subject and don't seek out help until it is too late. A lot of people fail these first year courses: many of them deserved it because they didn't work hard enough, but I think you also get a lot of people who tried and still failed because they weren't getting any feedback on their performance and didn't realize they didn't have mastery of the

[jtwonderdog]

I have to admit, while I intensely dislike a lot of Rick Perry's ideas for educational reform (for example, as far as I can tell, for him, the quality of research is directly proportional to the external funding it receives), there is a very serious cost problem with American higher education. To my mind, the main problem is that there is no incentive for cost control; the US News rankings (which unfortunately drive the thinking of administrators and students to a shocking degree) all measure *inputs*. All the incentives are to use more resources (including the human capital of incoming students) rather than to use fewer to achieve the same results, which is the normal incentive of market economics.

[krasnoludek]

Oh, I don't think that the cost of higher education doesn't need to be addressed. As you say, there's no incentive for cost control, which is why there has been a lot of bloat in administration, more luxurious dining options, dormitories, etc. However, Perry's "challenge" isn't much of a serious proposition at all, since he doesn't suggest any ways of solving the costs other than hinting that perhaps some subjects aren't worth funding and hinting at some other draconian measures that move universities in the direction of diploma mills. His past education policy decisions in Texas also suggest he has no clue how to reform higher education to reduce costs: cutting state funding for public universities doesn't reduce costs as much as pass the costs on to students, who have seen a dramatic rise in tuition at public universities over the course of the past decade in Texas, California and elsewhere. It also doesn't help to have an education system where one out of four high school students drops out of high school. That's Perry's legacy