It is no secret that U.S. universities are struggling to pay their bills. Endowments have shrunk due to stock market reverses. Money remaining in the coffers earns a measly interest rate that contributes negligibly to day-by-day expenses. To make matters worse, student loans have been dramatically curtailed in many states, often due to abuses by store front colleges whose primary income source is government student loans given to students who frequently drop out of school within the first semester. Finally, parents find it more difficult to cough up the $40,000 or more required per year for most private colleges, including my own, because home equity loans and other sources of financing are harder to acquire in an economic environment of dipping home values.
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