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Comment by throwaway5752 | Hacker News Reader

Since the current expectation is leisure, access to top technology, low class size from highly educated scholars, medical care, lodging, and administrative help... it costs $60k to house a prisoner per year, why do you think college costs should be much lower?

I'm not defending it, but there isn't Trader Joe's or Aldi of college yet (slightly better than average generic product with low/no frills).

If you want the answer: college loans are very lucrative, so they are pushed on the consumers heavily, just like home loans were 10-15 years ago. The people that profit from that benefit from irresponsible behavior and a broken system.

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>> "I'm not defending it, but there isn't Trader Joe's or Aldi of college yet (slightly better than average generic product with low/no frills)."

Community college.

Not 'slightly better' though, IME.

FWIW: many community colleges in my area are beginning to offer BA/BS degrees. I've seen data that shows students who get their two-year degree are often able to get into better 4-year schools than they would have had they applied straight from high school. Certainly given the cost, community colleges make a great deal of economic sense, though are perhaps held back by reputation.

Universities give preference to community college students for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the education they have received.

They tend to be older and more focused on their education; to have already demonstrated that they can complete 2 years of basic coursework without dropping out; and have mostly completed their general education classes, meaning they are much less of a drain on the institution. None of these reasons demonstrate 'better-than-average' quality of community college education, just the quality of the kind of students that pursue it successfully, and where they are in life when they apply somewhere else.

The very strategy of doing your first couple of years (ie - the general stuff you can teach yourself from the text book) before going somewhere else to your final degree belies the argument that the education is 'better than average'.

Is that 60k a year just housing and food or guards and administration too? I'd hope there were more guards and security measures in place for prisoners than for college kids.

Yes, but that's probably offset by professors, researches, et al. (as well as better accommodations, food, entertainment). It's not apples to apples, but it felt roughly comparable.

I hear ya. Thanks for the clarification.

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