Debt, Baby, Debt: America's Newest Voting Bloc

Gingrich was a college professor in a field, history, that is interesting but does little to provide its graduates with marketable skills. Perhaps that is why he likes to blame the students. Many colleges and especially law schools have published misleading and/or false placement and salary data, like law schools claiming their median graduate starts at $160,000 per year. Many news reports compound the problem. Some articles compare the earnings of graduates from different colleges without controlling for the different admissions credentials (e.g. students with near perfect SAT and GPA in advanced courses may have done better on average regardless of what college they attended). These factors result in overestimating the value of degrees, resulting in higher tuition.

Perhaps the government will eventually publish data on graduates' earnings based on W-2 forms from the IRS. They could then control the entering students' SAT and GPA scores (e.g. to account for the tendency of more motivated or talented students in high school to usually earn more later). This standardized data would then give potential students an idea about how much a particular college actually helps them and whether it is worth the money. Until such data is out, colleges and universities that publish misleading figures should take responsibility for misleading college students who take on the debt and the taxpayers who back much of the debt.

M of FL 5:21PM February 29, 2012