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Economy
American Colleges Are Headed for a Meltdown
2020-05-18
[Free Beacon] The coronavirus crisis could sink many schools—and leave a windfall for the survivors

They've been through riots, protests, and natural disasters—but America's colleges have never seen anything like the financial meltdown the coronavirus is about to bring to their campuses.

The rising wave of health fears, added costs, and vanishing tuition payments could crush small colleges, many of which were already hanging by a financial thread. Those that can weather the crisis—including big-name universities with billions in their bank accounts—in turn stand to gain big from the fallout.

The emptying out of schools and the mass transition to distance learning has already been "the largest all-sector hit that we've ever seen," Jim Hundrieser, a vice president with the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), told the Washington Free Beacon. But the challenges of this spring pale in comparison to the shock many colleges are expecting in the fall, when social distancing measures and a possible second wave could create the most surreal semester ever.

That strangeness, experts project, could in turn cause a massive drop in college revenue. Well-endowed colleges and big research schools have the savings to weather those effects. But many schools are beholden to semi-annual tuition payments, which are about to undergo the biggest shock since the Second World War.
Posted by:Besoeker

#13  It’s more efficient for one adult to teach twenty kids than for one adult to teach one kid. The real problem is the low quality and waste in the public school system.
Posted by: KBK   2020-05-18 23:18  

#12  The main barrier is political: the accreditation stick wielded by the unionized public teachers' cabal
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-18 13:09  

#11  Homeschooling is all very well for the organized, but I am not good at that kind of thing, and among those who are, there are plenty who would rather pay someone to handle it and can afford the expense. I would expect there to be an increase in private schools of all sorts to fill that need, from homeschooling groups taking care of the teaching together to churches to special interests like special ed. gifted ed, and so forth.
Posted by: trailing wife   2020-05-18 12:56  

#10  #7 What you're going to do with all the female teachers?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2020-05-18 12:11  

#9  You'd think the professors could live off the exorbitant and mandatory (for the students) book sales.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839   2020-05-18 12:03  

#8  Do we need a Masters degree to ask "Do you want fries with that?" That is where we were going.
Posted by: magpie   2020-05-18 10:21  

#7  Distance learning will erode the industrial, one-size-fits-all public schooling model. It's a vicious cycle for public schools.

Homeschooling, at about 3% now, will be adopted by 10% or more of the school-age population within another couple of years.

Most public school districts cannot take such a hit to their funding: their revenues are tied directly to enrollments. Their class sizes will balloon, and more and more parents will realize that homeschooling is superior to sending their kid to Lord of the Flies Middle School where overburdened adults fail to manage the chaos of 40+ kids in a classroom.
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-18 09:27  

#6  There will be a trimming or lopping off of B.S. no-content courses that basically push multi-culturalism, social justice, diversity, open borders; courses that tend to push division, victimhood and identity politics. These courses tend to be hotbeds for political activism, unrest and chaos on campuses.

Distant education methods should also limit the number of these courses that are offered.
Posted by: JohnQC   2020-05-18 09:25  

#5  No reason to put 35-40% of 18 year-olds in college programs where half or more of them can't write a complex sentence or do basic algebra or follow a complex argument.

This might well move us, finally, toward a two-track secondary educational system in which the majority of young people on reaching the age of 16 get focused, serious, practical vocational training leading to a useful job.

Maybe 20%, maximum, of 16 year-olds should go on to college--and should start doing college work in what is now junior year of high school.

Which means the ranks of undergraduate institutions should be culled by some 40-50 percent.
Posted by: Lex   2020-05-18 09:20  

#4  they will be the next 'too big to fail' businesses with a hand in the till.

the more the colleges adhere to and teach socialism, the bigger the payout.

and as usual, the taxpayer takes it in the shorts.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136   2020-05-18 09:02  

#3  Yeah, all 3 or 4 of them.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick   2020-05-18 08:18  

#2  20% of Liberal Arts Colleges were already failing before the CON virus. Estimated nearly 50% were to fail in 2-3 years. Conservative Colleges are or were thriving.
Posted by: Dale   2020-05-18 07:33  

#1  Why bad things happen to good people?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru PB   2020-05-18 07:01  

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