Fleece U: How American Universities are Robbing our Kids and our Future

American Universities are failing our kids. Literally! Financially! Occupationally! Its costing our kids and the American taxpayer a fortune, and a future. Barely half of all the students enrolled in Institution "Fleece U" earn a degree. Seven out of ten graduating have debt, now totaling a staggering $1.7 trillion and double that of all credit card, auto or home equity debt. Unbridled and unregulated, nothing in the American consumer diet rivals the meteoric rise of Fleece U. Not even the rising cost of healthcare or automobiles come close, inflating at rates less than half that of tuition or books. Add the poor performance of our university system across virtually every measure of educating and preparing our youth, and its time for the American public to grade Fleece U with a large, red "F" for failing our kids and their future.

As student debt and tuition have surged, so have Fleece U's endowments. Nothing on the horizon points to a curbing of Fleece U's capacity to raise costs, take grants, broker debt and fail our kids. Worst of all is what happens to low income students, the fastest growing segment of our student population, now making up 6 of 10 students enrolled. Fleece U treats these students as ATM machines, literally taking their grants, loading them with debt and expelling them at rates as high as 9 out of 10 times. When challenged, Fleece U has a well-rehearsed response. "We take no responsibility for the financial or academic outcomes of our students." Can you imagine walking into a restaurant or flying an airline that made no assurance of your outcome? Sadly, if just a third of those expelled from Fleece U had earned degrees, our middle class would be growing rather than being a political talking point.

Fleece U is not a political or social commentary - no doubt volumes could be written on those topics - but those are to be found elsewhere. This is a wakeup call to the American public that we can no longer tolerate Fleece U's practice of enrolling our kids, loading them with debt and take their grants while making no commitment to see them succeed. If they want to do so, fine, then let's take away their access to loans and grants and reward those schools committed to the success of their primary customer, our students.