More on the Higher Education Bubble and Coming Collapse

Source: Great Higher Education Bubble Infographic

Parents of children born today should be prepared to pay a hefty price for college tuition, if current trends in tuition costs don’t change. According to new analysis by The Daily, the class of 2034 will pay an average of $288,000 in 2011 dollars at a four-year private school and $123,000 at an average public school.


That’s an increase of 111 percent and 167 percent, respectively, from the average class of 2012 tuition:

New moms and dads with visions of Ivy League degrees dancing in their heads should be prepared to face a bill of $422,320 in today’s dollars if Junior heads off to one the country’s priciest colleges as a member of the class of 2034.


If college costs keep rising as they have for the last three decades, the inflation-adjusted price of four years of tuition alone will more than double at private colleges and nearly triple at public universities by the time a baby born this year is ready to enroll, an analysis by The Daily shows.

Read more: Skyrocketing Tuition: College Costs Could Reach $422K For Children Born Today

With the Iowa caucus under our belt, the 2012 election year is in full swing and one issue being raised across the country is student debt. So far, it seems that a number of candidates propose to address this issue through their plans to "improve the economy." They don't seem to understand the educational debt crisis very well.


We certainly recognize the dire need for more jobs, but we think the issue of educational debt demands a more direct solution. We're taking this opportunity to raise some issues that warrant candidates' attention and to clarify the magnitude of what students and graduates are facing.


Student debt is already greater than credit card debt (that happened in 2010) and will soon pass $1 trillion. According to expert Mark Kantrowitz, total student loan debt is increasing at a rate of about $2,853.88 per second. Two thirds of the undergraduate class of 2010 graduated with student debt, at an average of more than $25,000 per student.

Read more: Student Debt Crisis Isn’t Just About Economy

Persistent unemployment, shrinking job prospects, home foreclosures and gas prices predicted at $5 a gallon by summer, have the middle class hope ‘n changers of ’08 vexed.
Here’s an alarming factoid. In 1993 fewer than half of those who received bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. left school carrying student loan debt, according to The New York Times. Today, two-thirds leave college deep in debt, carrying student loans averaging $24,000. College loans stand at $1 trillion, nationally.


Unemployment, about 9 percent nationwide, is only 4.5 percent among college graduates.

Read more: Biden bypasses the college bubble