From our friends over at n+1 Literary Magazine: “Bad Education”

One of the best, most thorough, relevant, well-researched articles on higher education I have read in a while, which is saying something because I read a hundred higher.ed articles a week.

Here’s a sample paragraph:

“Higher education seems an unlikely site for this kind of speculative bubble. While housing prices are based on what competing buyers are willing to pay, postsecondary education’s price is supposedly linked to its costs (with the exception of the for-profits). But the rapid growth in tuition is mystifying in value terms; no one could argue convincingly the quality of instruction or the market value of a degree has increased ten-fold in the past four decades (though this hasn’t stopped some from trying). So why would universities raise tuition so high so quickly? “Because they can” answers this question for home-sellers out to get the biggest return on their investments, or for-profits out to grab as much Pell Grant money as possible, but it seems an awfully cynical answer when it comes to nonprofit education.

First, where the money hasn’t gone: instruction.”

I highly suggest you click the above link and read it in its entirety. There are very few writers I that grasp the big picture connecting all these problems, this article gets pretty close to putting the entire troubling puzzle together, at least as far as the economics of higher ed. are concerned.

I feel like they took all the words right out of my heart. Nice work Malcolm Harris.