The costs of education are ballooning. At school:
School costs: $40,000 for ‘free’ state education
Parents of a child born this year can expect to pay almost $40,000 for their education, after big rise in costs over the last 10 years.
It’s prompted critics to claim there’s “no such thing as a free education”.
The price of a child’s state education has risen by 15 per cent since 2007, figures released by the Australian Scholarships Group (ASG) Planning and Education Index today show.
And if you’re flush enough to send your child to a private school, you can now expect to pay 48 per cent more than parents a decade ago. …
Families go without food to cover school costs
Palmy Revolution spokesperson Jenny Hall said people had been asking the organisation for help with expenses including stationery, uniforms and school camps. The organisation had distributed hundreds of second-hand uniforms.
She told Nine to Noon some families had to do without so they could meet the costs of getting children back to school.
“What is the worst part for them is having to prioritise whether they can feed their families or whether they are feeding themselves because they know they’ve got these costs coming up,” she said.
“A lot of parents are sacrificing their own food, their own needs, not being able to run their car – just to cover the costs of getting back to school.”
Some families were facing bills of several thousand dollars for uniforms, fees and school camps, Ms Hall said. …
Meanwhile for tertiary students:
Student loan debt ‘balloons’ with average student owing $21,000 – Labour
Student loan debt has “ballooned” under National, Labour says, with the average student now $21,000 in the red. The comments came after a Government stocktake of the student loan scheme was released in an annual report for the 2016 year, showing costs have tracked up while participation has declined.
…
“National are saddling future generations with huge debt and it’s getting worse not better,” Hipkins said, accusing the Government of trying to “sneak these figures out”.“Declining participation rates are really concerning. If we are to provide all New Zealanders with the opportunity to adapt to the changing needs of the economy and society, and to fulfil their own potential, we need to see participation in tertiary education increasing, not decreasing.” …
Costs up, debt up, participation down – brilliant.
I expect we’ll get some Kiwiblog trolls parroting Farrar, that a student loan is “The best investment ever”. Farrar cites figures to the effect that “average increase in earnings from having a degree is $1.6 million”. This is pure spin and he knows it. The benefit after subtracting the costs of fees and lost earnings the benefit is around $1 million over a lifetime. But that is for university degrees on average (there is a lot of variation). And according to a recent OECD report our non-university degrees and tertiary qualifications (“Type B”) are “the most worthless in the developed world” (see discussion and clarification of this report). In short, far too many tertiary students are being stuck with huge (and increasing) loans for qualifications with minimal return.
National needs to do something to address spiraling education costs in both the secondary and tertiary sectors.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress