Let colleges and universities fail without bail-out funding

Most college students have left campus by this point in the pandemic, and they have realized that the vast majority of coursework can be completed online—with very few exceptions—without having to pay thousands of dollars in tuition, dorm fees, meal plans, and parking passes. Students don't need to be on campus to learn and they don't need to have the storied and fantastical "college experience" to get their degree.

There are lots of good reasons to let these universities and colleges that can't make it through the pandemic shut down without government hand-outs fail.

Mountains of Debt

This is the biggest talking point in all debates and discussions about colleges and universities.

The national government should not relieve all student debts, as it’s a bit tone deaf to ask taxpayers to fund the bailout of students who willingly took on this debt.

But there’s no question that student debt is astronomically high.

The malignancy of the student debt crisis is that colleges and universities are charging students way too much for the services they provide. There is almost no education that can possibly warrant a semester fee of $20,000-$30,000.

And these institutions should be punished for price-gouging students.

Value of University Degrees Have Diminished

And this is the case for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most consequential is that a university degree no longer guarantees a job, much less a job in a relevant field.

Many students now have to seek a master’s degree or a doctorate to be competitive in a given field. A simple undergraduate degree is little better than simply attending college in the first place.

But there is also the fact that so many degrees are given out every single year. To show promise in a field is no longer a requisite. All that is required is a solid “C” across the board. There is no longer an emphasis on giftedness.

The job market is oversaturated because of this. Thousands of students end up moving back home to work at Starbucks after their four years, suffocating beneath the heel of debt and unable to find a job in their chosen field.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

The time spent in college is time that a student could be learning on-the-job. If a student is majoring in journalism, for example, they should be shadowing at their local newspaper. An engineering student should be shadowing other engineers who are actually working professionally as an engineer.

Staring at PowerPoints for four years isn’t going to do much in the way of preparing students for what they will actually be doing in their career.

What we have instead are students who spend a ton of money getting an education, only to have sacrificed those four years without getting paid or learning a valuable skill. Colleges and institutions have set students up for failure.

Exploitation of Teaching/Graduate Assistants

Teaching assistants, who teach required courses to undergraduate students, make less than those who work in fast food.

As a teaching assistant myself, I make $544.00 every two weeks, with no option for a benefits package. But this just speaks to the bogus idea that these institutions really want their students and staff to succeed. They cut financial corners any way they can, because, after all, they are a business.

Athletes Get a Pass

Professors and instructors are told all the time to pass the athletes in their class. A few years back, Rutgers University football head coach was fined for approaching a professor, demanding that the professor change the grade of one of his players.

But this kind of thing happens all the time.

Professors should not be pressured to pass a college athlete who has a reading level just above that of a fifth grader. The scholarship that student has could go to another student, who might take their studies and athletic career a bit more seriously.

If 99 percent of college athletes go pro in something other than sports, then that 99 percent better start reading some books and working toward something other than running down a field with a ball.