There is no doubt that upper level education in the United States has been one of the most inflationary aspects of family budgets. Long-term planning for college education is crucial. Unfortunately, because of the pace of cost increases, the only option is often student loans. This is putting young adults in severe debt even before they enter the full time workforce.
A similar increase was seen in the cost of textbooks. Throughout the last few decades, the prices of textbooks went one direction: up.
The inflation rate on textbooks outpaced even healthcare.
The solution could come in open source. Often, in the industry, professors strike a deal with the textbook company and the students are required to buy it. This is something that is not very efficient as noticed in the decades long price increase.
One company is developing open source software books. This is something that has saved students over $1 billion. More than half the institutions use open source textbooks.
The company that is doing this is taking this one step further. By integrating artificial intelligence, it seeks to enhance the educational experience.
The above chart shows how ridiculous the pricing has gotten. Dealing with a captive audience is never a good recipe for consumers. Usury is the term most associated with this practice which is, unfortunately, completely legal.
If we stretch this out a bit further, we see similar results in the entire upper educational realm. There is very little efficiency in the system which also saw major increases in cost. A basic 4 year education can run over $200,000.
Open source and technology are the path to alleviating this nightmare. Just like the textbook industry is being disrupted, we should see a similar path in the overall upper educational arena.
The educational arena is in dire need of overhaul. In 2020, we see an industry that is operating, for the most part, just like it did 50 years ago. All the technological improvements have not yet penetrated this industry.
What is encouraging is the solutions to many of our problems are right before us. We have a situation where monopolistic entities have profited on the backs of everyone else.
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