Colleges face pressure to justify soaring tuition

(MoneyWatch) Are new college graduates in the U.S. getting value for their increasingly pricey education? That's what a growing number of parents and students want to know as the cost of higher education continues tp rise while the job market remains depressed.

• 10 top-paying college degrees for 2012 graduates
• More students working (a lot) in college
• Janitors, clerks and waiters with college degrees
  

To that end, a bipartisan group of lawmakers have introduced a bill -- "The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act," sponsored by senators Ron Wyden. D-Ore., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. -- that would require states to collect and disseminate data on what graduates in different fields earn. This push for greater job transparency is already accelerating in several states around the nation, including California, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, Arkansas and Texas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many colleges and universities are resisting efforts to release graduate earnings data to the public.  They argue that such measures should not be confined to new or recent college graduates, claiming that lifetime wages are a better gauge of educational value than a snapshot two or three years after students get their degrees. Focusing on at a young grad's wages in the short-term also could hurt schools that produce more liberal arts majors, which research suggests earn more over their lifetimes. 

Still, transparency advocates say giving families a better idea of the kind of compensation commanded by certain degrees help people make better decisions about their education. Greater public attention on the financial payback that students can expect also could encourage institutions to focus on the quality of education, rather than pouring money into athletic and other ancillary services that school use to justify sky-high prices.

One place to keep abreast of what's occurring on the state level is the website of CollegeMeasures.org, which is assisting state agencies in their efforts to make information about the earnings of graduates from their higher education programs publicly accessible.

[hypnotoad72]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/education/harkin-report-condemns-for-profit-colleges.html?_r=0

Definitely worth reading,

[cobian77]

Here is some info on PAC-10 costs: http://honestcosts.blogspot.com/

[zmonkee]

there is no justification for these costs--- It's ridiculous!! And as long as the government keeps giving out loans, costs will keep going up--

[hypnotoad72]

Huh?

Government is backing the loans, but that doesn't mean the hapless student, trying to work in good faith, is ever let off the hook. Unlike all the subsidy, bailouts. and entitlements given to corporations that offshore (or have college-educated workers train their H1B replacements) jobs.

Never mind grade inflation and other examples of FRAUD...

Government needs to put its foot down, halt the thievery, make the colleges pay back, and refund the students. Innocent, honest people are being fleeced. And you sit there rambling on aspects that ignore the core details of the problem.

What's going on is grand larceny. Pure and simple.

[hypnotoad72]

Don't forget, corporations demand Bachelor's degrees for anything that pays anything remotely decently these days.

And since government has bailed out banks and will continue to do so, it does not matter if it backs loans or not. It'll keep bailing out the multinational and zero-allegiance supply-side, while letting the constituent citizenry rot.