- What up world, Myles Bess here.

Journalist, host of "Above the Noise", and someone who majored in broadcast and electronic communication arts.

Basically, I speak computer.

(computer beeps) Now, I know y'all have been hearing for a minute now that college in the US is, pardon my French, a le poop show.

It's stinky, folks.

The average borrower leaves with almost $30,000 in college debt, plus interest, meaning they'll be paying hundreds of dollars every month for decades.

It's so daunting that some American teens have decided to give up on the college dream all together.

How many exactly?

Almost half of high school students in the US report they're open to pursuing something other than a four year college degree.

Translation, they want out, out, out, out, out.

And maybe, just maybe, they're on to something.

So today we're asking, are Americans getting their money's worth from college?

Now, the tale college as we know it today really begins at the end of World War II with the GI Bill.

The US government gave money to returning soldiers to pay for college.

This meant that for the first time ever, college just wasn't some rich dude named Nathaniel T. Moneybags having his kids ask other rich kids, "And where do you summer?"

Normal, regular, everyday folks now had a shot at college too.

And over the next few decades, college came to be known as the great equalizer.

No matter who you were or where you came from, that college degree was your ticket to climb the social and economic ladder to a better life.

The social equivalent now would be like in those romcoms when the nerdy girl takes off her glasses and just suddenly becomes hot.

Both things promised guaranteed success in social circles.

Check out these numbers.

In 1960, 16 years after the start of the GI Bill, about 40% of Americans went to college.

And that number continued to grow until it reached a peak in 2016 when almost 70% of high school grads enrolled in college.

The mantra of college, college, college was literally all I heard growing up.

Teachers being like, "Study hard so you can get into college, and if you don't."

(teacher screams) But when the pandemic hit in 2020, college enrollment took a hit and students really started reevaluating where their money was going.

Like, do you really wanna spend $20,000 for the privilege of Zoom-ing into your intro to puppetry class?

So it's no surprise to me that a recent survey found that 38% of current college students are worried that they won't have the money to cover their school expenses through the end of the semester.

Lisa, I want some more.

Huh?

I did some digging on the Department of Education site to see where all this tuition money's going and I found this interesting little knowledge nugget.

Administrative positions, so stuff like college presidents, deans, and provosts grew by 60% between 1993 and 2009, which was 10 times the rate of tenured faculty positions.

You know, the people that actually teach the stuff that people pay to go to college for.

That's a big chunk of your tuition money going to pay more people for stuff that that isn't directly related to academics.

Like what the heck do provosts do anyway?

Like, seriously.

Now, the technical term for this expansion of non-teaching staff has a name.

Administrative bloat.

Let's face the sad truth.

College in America is big business and there is a lot of competition for students.

And college presidents are basically CEOs.

In 2019, 17 public university presidents were earning over $1 million a year.

What?

What?

A million dollars?

Do you know what I could do with a million dollars?

I found this one article from the Heritage Foundation which is a conservative think tank, and they have big beef with one particular aspect of administrative bloat.

Non instructional staff that provides support services for students.

Who does that include, you might ask?

Well, they have quite the list.

Staff to organize Greek and social life, to bring in entertainment like comedians and bands, to run intramural sports teams.

And what the Heritage Foundation dislikes the most?

Staff focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

They say that stuff is a waste of money and doesn't help people excel at college or graduate.

But one man's bloat is another man's college degree.

Well, what I'm trying to say is that doesn't track with college students that I've talked to.

Like, I interviewed this dude for a previous episode.

He's a first generation college student, and he told me that it was precisely because of the support services at his college that he was able to thrive and find his major.

So.

And let's not get distracted from one of the big reasons why college is so expensive.

It's not administrative bloat.

It's not expanding student services, or fancy dorms, or extravagant lazy rivers.

Deep cuts in state funding for colleges have put students in a hole.

Sure, some states have recently upped what they're giving to their public colleges, but that money just isn't keeping up with the rising cost of college or just inflation in general.

So where does that extra money come from?

You guessed it.

You!

In the form of student loans.

All this debt is literally forcing students to delay major milestones and adulting.

One survey found that more than half of 18 to 29 year olds have pumped the brakes on getting married, purchasing a car, buying a home, or saving for retirement because of student debt.

People are broke and college can keep you broke or living home with your mom until you're pushing 30.

I'm almost, I'm almost 30 years old and I'm still living at home with my mama.

(Myles sighs) This is all college's fault.

It's not, has nothing to do with me.

Debt doesn't care what you look like but it doesn't hit everyone equally.

Look, there's 45 million Americans who are in the hole for 1.6 trillion dollars in debt from federal student loans.

And folks who've been historically excluded, yes, minorities and women, carry a disproportionate percentage of that debt.

Black women hold the most, on average at over $35,000.

Why?

Sexism.

What about racism?

Oh yeah.

Can't forget about that one too.

And yes, black women, more than ever, are getting a higher education, but they still earn a lot less, making it a heavier burden to repay those loans.

Like, imagine being punished just because you wanna learn.

So how can we fix this mess?

Well, Biden just canceled up to $20,000 in student debt for many borrowers who make under 125K a year, and he's proposing a new income driven repayment plan that caps monthly payments for undergraduate loans at 5% of your discretionary income.

All nice steps to making college more affordable.

But they're really just band-aids on top of a giant gaping wound that is the insanely high cost of college.

How about, let's just make college free, Myles.

Yeah, feel the Bern.

I mean, that's how they do it in a bunch of EU countries, especially those countries in Northern Europe like Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, just to name a few.

Tuition is totally 100% free there, but you do have to live on a permanent midnight for like five months out of the year.

(light switch flicks) Oh.

Guys?

In other EU countries that don't offer totally free tuition still offer it at a steep bargain.

Like in France, it's around 2000 bucks for the year.

That's a whole lot of croissants.

And if we want free college here in the US, that's gonna mean new and higher taxes to pay for it.

Or relocating how we're currently spending our tax dollars.

And we all know how much we Americans love when politicians mess with our taxes.

And free college here means the college experience would probably look a lot more like it does in Europe.

So no lazy rivers, no D1 sports, less frills overall.

Now if you wanna dive even deeper into what free college would look like in the US, we did a whole video on that that y'all should check out.

And let's face it.

We're not doing free college at the national level anytime soon.

But are there some creative ways to avoid debt as we simultaneously advocate for structural change, and you know, the revolution.

I mean, look at me, for example.

I knew that I was gonna have to take a different route if I wanted to find any success.

I got rejected from everywhere I applied.

Like, they wasted so much paper sending me rejection letters.

So I went to community college, then transferred to a state school, and eventually got my degree.

Not exactly the story that you see on those college posters.

But what was best for me may not be what's best for you.

And look, I don't wanna sound like a hater.

I'm not hating on college.

A degree is still the best way to earn more money down the road, but it's not the only way.

I know people making good money who don't have a degree.

And if you wanna learn more about that, check out a video we did on college versus trade school.

But clearly, folks are fed up and wanna get the most bang for their buck and colleges have to keep up their end of the bargain.

I mean, at least that's what it looks like to me.

But what do you all think?

Do you think investing in college tuition is the best way to get ahead in life?