University of California Campus Erupts In Riots; Student Loan Scam Drives Up Cost Of Education; Expect More Riots
by ilene - March 8th, 2010 10:04 am
University of California Campus Erupts In Riots; Student Loan Scam Drives Up Cost Of Education; Expect More Riots
Courtesy of Mish
Inquiring minds are reading about student riots at the University of California.
Students at the University of California’s flagship Berkeley campus took to the streets on Friday night, vandalizing university buildings, burning trash cans and clashing with police in the latest expression of frustration over cuts to the educational budget in California.
In November, the University of California Board of Regents voted to raise tuition by 32 percent. At the same time, professors were asked to take pay cuts or be furloughed, classes were eliminated and class size increased. Protests erupted across the University of California system, particularly at UC Davis and UCLA.
Student Loan Defaults Soar
Please consider Defaults on student loans rising
Every year, tens of thousands of college students and graduates stop making payments on their student loans.
For more than a decade, that loan-default rate was in decline because the federal government toughened penalties for schools with high shares of defaults. Now, the rate is increasing again and not just because of the economy.
The problem is particularly acute in Arizona, which has the nation's highest overall default rate on federal student loans: 9.8 percent in fiscal year 2007, the latest figures available.
But more than default rates, it is the high levels of debt that are provoking alarm among consumer advocates. That has heightened scrutiny of for-profit schools.
Tuition at for-profit schools can easily top $10,000 a year. The average loans for a student who earned a bachelor's degree totaled $32,650 in the 2007-08 school year, compared with $17,700 at public universities. At community colleges, the average for two-year degrees was $7,125.
In Arizona, for-profit schools are booming. They have more than doubled the number of students they serve in the past five years, and