Selling National Education Policy

The trend which the higher education policy is going, is disappointing. Over the past several weeks, Congress, once again demonstrated that they operate within the confines of their cubicles, making the lives of working class families and students more difficult. The bipartisan education bill passed by the Senate on July 24th pegs student loans only against the vagaries of financial institutions. Politicians are determining the future of our youth, diminishing the middle class further and making higher education accessibility very difficult. This bill will have a lasting consequence disturbing the socio-cultural fabric of the nation, diverting brain power and money elsewhere.

The divide between the rich and poor will increase. Recently passed bill locks interest rates for undergraduate borrowing at 3 .9% and graduate loan at 5.4% for students, and at 6.4% for parents for the first year. Subsequently, interest rates on loans rises proportionately with economic changes. Since July 1, the rates on subsidized Stafford loans have doubled from 3.4% to 6.8%. Nationally, around 8 million students benefit from Stafford loan, including 220,000 from the state of Georgia. The rate increase provides no protection for struggling families and aspiring students, amidst a declining economy and a difficult job market.

With current policies, only the rich will afford a good college degree and higher education. Cost of college education is expensive in the U. S. where students are already straddled with an enormous $1 trillion national debt. The public education policy further discourages students to enroll in universities, potentially enlarging existing debt and promoting room for defaults.  Additionally, these policies will take money and brain elsewhere, as struggling families and students will begin shopping in other countries for an affordable education, taking investments along with them. So this double whammy will threaten the educational foundation and the economy.

Students from the United States will go abroad to acquire higher and cheaper education. The current policy will promote ‘education-tourists’. Students will divert investments away from the United States, putting the monies in countries such as France, England, Sweden, Netherlands, India, and Singapore where good quality education can be achieved at a much lesser cost. A Business Insider report examines the cost of higher education for students around the World using data from 2010, showing that education affordability in the United States is not in a good shape.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tuition-costs-by-country-college-higher-education-2012-6?op=1

Quality education is a lot more affordable outside the U.S. at a much lower fee.

Most likely, students who go abroad to study will continue within the international workforce. There are already over 5 million American citizens residing overseas. So, the country will lose out in both brain power and investment as the number of Americans who leave the U. S. will begin to increase.

Currently, the U.S. also benefits from investments that foreign students bring to the country.

Rich foreign students who come to the United States for their higher education will return back to their respective countries, taking their knowledge along with them and leaving behind an untrained workforce gap.

It is time to acknowledge that there is an education crisis in this country, which will gradually deplete money and brain power. The bipartisan bill will have a long term impact, affecting working class people with middle and low income. The affordability score for higher education will get worse in the years to come. Currently, one third students depend on some type of loan and grant support. History has shown that federally subsidized program such as G.I. Bill, loans and grants opened up opportunities to many who could not afford higher education and helped develop the economy. What the country needs now is not a piecemeal approach to education but a comprehensive education reform program. Politicians must look at what has worked in the past.