Under challenge from distance learning, schools won't be able to continue outrageous price increases
If you type "college costs bubble" into an Internet search engine as I did recently, you'll find quite the list of news stories and opinion pieces focused on the fact that the costs of higher education have risen so quickly and reached such heights that they are obviously unsustainable. "Unsustainability" is a word we see more and more as the economy continues its weakness. Public worker pension costs are described that way, having been sustained thus far only by tapping the federal Treasury to bail out the many states that can't meet their pension liabilities.
This game will come to an end soon. One indicator of that is the trimmed-down amount of $26 billion Congress approved this week to prevent the layoffs of teachers, public safety workers and other government employees in fiscally strapped states that lack Washington's ability to mint more dollars. The New York Times harrumphed that this was about half of what was needed for the job, but it was all the legislators had the stomach for as voter discontent over swollen public spending continues to build with the elections looming.