Colleges squeeze out middle-class
High-priced private colleges are “feeling the heat but not ready to compete,” writes Tom VanderArk in the Huffington Post. Middle-class parents won’t to pay $50,000 a year for a second- or third-tier college when they can turn to do-it-yourself learning alternatives, which are improving all the time.
Vander Ark predicts higher education will become “a blend of online and onsite learning and a blend of multiple providers.” School will become “a web of cloud-based applications delivered to multiple devices with ancillary physical services.” Only the best bricks-and-mortar colleges and universities will survive.
Western Governors University, an online collaborative, pioneered using competencies rather than seat time in 1995. “WGU was ahead of its time, but individual progress models will soon be common in K-12 and will