College isn’t cheap
College is really expensive, and more and more people are questioning the payoff.
About the Author (Author Profile)
Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on consumer law litigation and appellate practice. He is also a working musician and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich and his wife, Anne Jay, live in the Shaw Neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, where they are raising their two extraordinary daughters.Subscribe
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When my older sion was born, my wife bought shares in a mutual fund as a college fund. By the time my younger son was born, the fund had had been built up to about #200, just before the recession hit, the fund was up to about $3000. this was due to us adding a few dollars every month. The everything hit the fan, and suddenly we found the total had dropped to $1.57.
What drives the high price of college, however is the financial sector has pushed in favor of smal private career colleges that do little more than extract wealth from grants and student loans. Of nearly 50 colleges in a 30 mile radius of the Tennessee state capitol, about 10 are long established schools, the rest are career colleges.
I can climb the hill by my house and see two career college campuses. Many of them operate out of storefronts, promising exciting and high paying careers in such majors as medical billing, and commercial artistry. Their main function, however , seems to be extracting wealth from student loans and grants.