Issues Paper: Digital Education and Student Debt

Digital Education Questions

Q1. Are computers in school improving education?

Yes 1: New technology is saving money for schools.
Yes 2: It has the potential to radically transform schools into more effective institutions.
No 1: There is little empirical evidence on what computers can actually accomplish is education.
No 2: Too much of the new technology is being used to prepare for standardized tests.

Q2. Can computers replace classroom teachers?

Yes 1: Enrollment on online education courses is proliferating.
Yes 2: Ideally, the bets form of education is self-education, which can be done on the computer very effectively.
No 1: Most successful computer education is linked to improved teacher training.
No 2: This new technology may not be suited to education at all, as opposed to entertainment.

Q3. Are computer games effective for learning?

Yes 1: Games are a good method for engaging younger students in education.
Yes 2: They can make traditional subjects more interesting and appealing.
No 1: Developing this type of technology for student learning and education purposes is difficult.
No 2: Most successful computer learning of this type requires specialized training.

Policy Update

Gee, J.P. The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning. Palgrave Macmillan.

Summary: Today there are many new virtual tools in education that have never existed before, but they are not being used correctly. Educators have access to computer tutors, multimedia, video games, digital design and production tools, social media and collaborative writing and publishing online, but "they are rarely used or are poorly used in schools and even colleges." If used properly, particularly in the first eight years of education, these tools could create new values and meaning, as books, films and television have done in the past. Use of digital media, the Internet and computers could create a "pathway toward higher-order and complex thinking skills", but for the most part this is not how they are being used today).

Evaluation: For all the propaganda about digital education, it is still not being used very extensively or properly in education, and few teachers have the training to use it correctly. It has the potential to revolutionize education, but this has not yet occurred, and all too often to new technology is being treated like an expensive toy, nor is it being made widely available to poor students in inner-city schools. If used in libraries and community centers in these areas, it could make education far more meaningful, but instead schools and society today are making people more stupid rather than smarter. This problem is being exacerbated by the growing levels of poverty and inequality in society, which are affecting the entire education system.

Policy Recommendation

What is your recommendation for each question? Briefly explain what you think about each question and why you think the way you do.

Q1: Computers have the potential to improve education in many ways, although they are generally not being used correctly today, and few teachers have the training and experience to know how best they could be used. Poor and lower-income students in the inner cities who could benefit most from this new technology are the least likely to have it.

Q2: Computers will not be intelligent enough to replace human teachers for the foreseeable future, but they will change the model of classroom instruction so that it becomes more like self-study, with the teacher acting as a guide and resource rather than a lecturer.

Q3: Computer games have the potential to actively engage students and excite their interest in learning, if they are used correctly, but there is little evidence that they have been up to now. Education can be made more interesting and entertaining through the use of games, although unfortunately this has not yet occurred on a large scale.

Student Debt Questions

Q1. Are students incurring too much student debt?

Yes 1: Student debt is now greater than credit card debt, which is unsustainable in the long run, especially in the current recession.
Yes 2: Graduate and professional school debt is even higher, at over $100,000 per student.
No 1: Students who attend public universities will have much less debt than those in private institutions.
No 2: There are newer programs such as the expansion of Pell Grants that limit student borrowing.

Q2. Does rising college debt limit who attends and completes college?

Yes 1: In a time of high unemployment, it is very difficult to repay student loans and the default rate has been increasing.
Yes 2: Student loans cannot even be discharged through bankruptcy, so this discourages low-income people from taking the risk of borrowing.
No 1: There are other limits on who attends college, such as rising levels of poverty and inequality.
No 2: The federal and state governments have been limiting funding for education at all levels.

Q3. Has the increasing availability of education loans driven up college costs?

Yes 1: Tuition have been going up faster than the rate of inflation for 30 years.
Yes 2: Many of these loans were made from banks rather than from the federal government, which benefit the banks and universities, but cannot be repaid.

No 1: Other factors are increasing college costs, such as higher expenditures for faculty, housing and equipment.
No 2: Because of the recession, state and federal aid to education has been decreasing, which also drives up costs.

Policy Update

Lynch, D.K. Educationally Screwed: Two Generations of Predatory Student Loan Fraud and its Consequences. Author House Publishers.

Dr. Lynch was a physician and surgeon who became a victim of predatory student lending by private banks that was left largely unregulated and unsupervised by the federal government in recent years, just like subprime mortgage lending. She was left heavily in debt after medical school, and even though she repaid $70,000 and never missed a payment, she was declared in default and lost her medical practice and credit rating. She points out that there was massive corruption in the Department of Education, the banks and Sallie Mae that has left students over $1 trillion in debt with a default rate near 10% (Lynch 2013, p. ix). Wall Street and corrupt members of Congress also preferred to see high levels of default on these private loans, which was even more profitable for them since the federal government repaid it all (Lynch, p. 107). This situation has been made even worse by the current recession and high levels of poverty, inequality and unemployment.

Evaluation: Students loans are a drag on the economy because so many of them cannot be repaid, yet they cannot be eliminated through bankruptcy. For students in gradual and professional schools, it is simply impossible to repay these debts, yet they are starting out life with a huge debt burden. In the last ten years they have become another credit bubble like subprime mortgages, and this is bound to collapse eventually. It would be better simply lower tuitions and increase grants and scholarships for low-income students. This system of student loans has mostly benefitted the big banks rather than students, and federal funds could be expended with much better results in other areas.

Policy Recommendation

What is your recommendation for each question? Briefly explain what you think about each question and why you think the way you do.

Q1: There is no question that $1 trillion is student debt is too high and that they will never be repaid, especially because of the recession and high levels of unemployment today.

Q2: Many students are being discouraged from attending college because of the high costs and rising levels on indebtedness, particularly in private schools, which are placing university education out of reach for many of the working class and even the middle class.

Q3: College costs have increased over 400% since 1970, which is much higher than the rate of inflation, and this is especially true in private and elite institutions. Student loans are not the only factor in these rising costs, though, since the universities have also been making higher expenditures on faculty, housing, student services and many other areas.

References

Gee, J.P. The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students through Digital Learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
Lynch, D.K. Educationally Screwed: Two Generations of Predatory Student Loan Fraud and its Consequences. Author House Publishers.