Piers Morgan: College Tuition 'Heart Of America's Educational Problem' (VIDEO)

Piers Morgan offered a harsh critique of the American educational system on his Wednesday show.

The CNN host was interviewing finance guru Suze Orman in front of an audience. In a question-and-answer session, one audience member wanted to know if her son should take out student loans to attend a prestigious university, or accept a full scholarship to a lower-tier school. Morgan called the dilemma a "brilliant question" that "cuts to the absolute heart of America's educational problem." He said that the student was clearly "very bright," but was being priced out of the very best education.

"Welcome to America, Piers!" Orman said. She advised the student to go to the college that gave him a full scholarship.

"I refuse to believe that what gets you a great job, what makes a great career, is the school that you went to," she said.

Morgan came down harder on the inequalities of the American educational system. "Bright students should not be priced out of this kind of educational opportunity," he said. "The government of this country should be looking at this specific kind of case and fixing it so these students are not laden with debt."

Also on HuffPost:

CNN's lineup:

• 5-7 AM: Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin

  Banfield (shown here) and Sambolin are set to host a new morning show starting in early 2012).

• Zoraida Sambolin

  Sambolin has been a host for a local Chicago station.

• 7AM-9AM: Soledad O'Brien

  O'Brien is slated to start her new morning show in early 2012.

• 9AM-11AM -- CNN Newsroom with Kyra Phillips

• 11AM-1PM -- CNN Newsroom with Suzanne Malveaux

• 1 PM- 2 PM: Randi Kaye

• 2PM-4PM -- CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin

• 4PM-6PM -- The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

• 6PM-7PM -- John King USA

• 7PM-8PM -- Erin Burnett

• 8PM-9PM -- Anderson Cooper

• 9PM-10PM -- Piers Morgan Tonight

• 10PM-11PM -- Anderson Cooper (Repeat)

• 6AM-7:30AM -- CNN Saturday Morning (Formerly with T.J. Holmes)

• 7:30AM-8:00AM -- Sanjay Gupta MD

• 8AM-9AM -- CNN Saturday Morning (Formerly with T.J. Holmes)

• 9:30AM-10AM -- Your Bottom Line with Christine Romans

• 10AM-1PM -- CNN Saturday Morning (Formerly with T.J. Holmes)

• 1PM-2PM: Your Money

• 2PM -- CNN Newsroom

• 6AM-7:30AM -- CNN Sunday Morning (Formerly with T.J. Holmes)

• 7:30AM-8:00AM -- Sanjay Gupta MD

• 8AM-9AM -- CNN Sunday Morning (Formerly with T.J. Holmes)

• 9AM-10AM: State of the Union with Cindy Crowley

• 10AM-11AM: Fareed Zakaria GPS

• 11AM-12PM -- Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz

• 12PM-1PM: State of the Union with Cindy Crowley

• 1PM-2PM -- Fareed Zakaria GPS

• 2PM-3PM -- The Next List

• 3PM-4PM -- Your Money

• 4PM: CNN Newsroom

Comments

[albertogr28]

04:29 AM on 02/25/2012

Morgan has a great point when she says that students are being priced out by colleges, me as a college student agree with her. Students should be more mature when deciding which college to attend. Colleges are not the best just because of the reputation they have but because of the students, if a student is willing to learn, the student will acquire the knowledge no matter how big or how prestigious the college is. Students are given the tools and resources to learn and achieve their academic goals, it is up to them wither they use them wisely or not use them at all.

[albertogr28]

04:22 AM on 02/25/2012

Morgan makes a great point when she says that students should not be priced out by colleges. students have to think about the things they are going through when going to college, one the education is up to the student, the students are provided with the tools and resources to learn, it is up to the student of he/she uses them or if they use them.

[Alan Powers]

04:41 PM on 02/12/2012

Curious that O'Meara / Morgan puts a premium on prestige colleges, when he's an alumn of Harlow College, and rose quickly to the top under Murdoch--for his showbiz gossip column. Does one need to attend Harlow to write such a column?
It's touching that O'Meara / Morgan is so concerned for American students and their access to "good schools." One could argue that except for social access, there are no "good schools" now, since the average sophomore Shakespeare course in 1970 was a year long, all 38 plays. No college now teaches that. And college math texts are famously "dumbed down" to no longer include proofs of the Mean Value Theorem, nor compound-complex sentences. Biology, though, is an exception, with vast extensions in knowledge--but all hampered by relative ignorance of the Latin roots behind all the new terms.
Where did O'Meara / Morgan study the ethics of phone hacking? Was that part of the Harlow College curriculum? Or did he learn that on the job under Murdoch pere e fil?

[janesvillekidd]

12:00 PM on 02/05/2012

Go Home!!!

[TheLibraryOfCodex]

01:03 AM on 02/05/2012

Take the scholarship

Don't get into debt.

[LVNVprog]

08:05 PM on 02/04/2012

I think Top Tier Schools Create an Artificial Shortage to Overprice their Degrees. Public Universities with high educational standards and Price Controls should be the only places where Public Grants, Student Loans and Student Grants should be available. To sit in a Lecture Hall of over 100 Students and pay exorbitant rates per Class Hour and Books is obscene when an I Pad can totally replace that College Experience.

[hungryaardvark]

03:45 PM on 02/04/2012

Piers fails to note that the Tbangers don't want education taught in American schools, period. They want religious dogma over science, faux-history instead of history, pretend government instaed of government.... All so that the top fraction of 1% can steal all the assets and resources for themselves. They ahve no problem about enslavement of the have-nots. Just ask Romney. He simply doesn't care. Typical Repugnican who likes a rigged system.

On the other hand, Piers was head of News of the World and eyeball deep in phone and email hacking. Hardly a paragon of honest thinking.

[The ORF in Largo]

02:25 PM on 02/04/2012

"Piers Morgan's problem with America" it should read "America's problem with Piers Morgan"
We don't need Ruppert's former sock puppet telling us whats wrong; let him go back to the UK
to face the music along with the rest of News Corp. a/k/a The Evil Empire

[nothingchanges]

11:24 AM on 02/04/2012

When it comes to America's problem with Education, I think perhaps George Carlin summed it up the best in 2005
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

[AlfredE69]

08:17 AM on 02/04/2012

Bow down to your Queen or be sent to the stockade serf!

[dfranz]

05:16 PM on 02/03/2012

He is so right. While we bemoan America's slide in educational levels compared to the rest of the world, we continue to cut funding for education.......Don't want to irritate the "job creators" too much, because paying for the education of their children isn't that big of a deal to them.

[falsy]

04:35 PM on 02/03/2012

Suzie is wrong. Unfortunately, many employers only recruit out of the top tier of schools, and even then they only recruit from the top 1/4 of students from that top tier.

[stopnlisten]

12:23 PM on 02/04/2012

Others recruit noneducated workers and then fire them when they get close to earning benefits.

[miggon]

01:21 PM on 02/04/2012

That's more true of grad school -- especially MBA programs -- than it is of undergrad. And in today's business climate, a bachelor's degree isn't enough for top tier executive jobs.

[DinSea]

01:59 PM on 02/03/2012

Until they remove booze from campus clubs, I cannot justify funding.

[Relacks83]

05:35 PM on 02/03/2012

But drinking is the essence of college.

[roger37]

10:26 PM on 02/03/2012

Uh, this is no longer 1957. Believe it or not, the women's dorms don't even have hours, anymore!

[liberal leaning]

12:28 PM on 02/03/2012

UK please take this guy back, we don't want him.

[emperance]

02:52 PM on 02/03/2012

We beg of you. PLZ!!!!

[lenuk]

07:39 PM on 02/03/2012

You bought him. He's yours.

[BBackSoon]

10:17 AM on 02/03/2012

I don't like Piers but I will say on this one point, he is not wrong.

[roger37]

10:33 PM on 02/03/2012

Agreed. Piers is right. There are too many US college grads that can't even construct a grammatically correct sentence--and they don't come from the top schools.

[BBackSoon]

09:47 AM on 02/06/2012

While that is true, these kids should not start off their working career with 10's or even 100's of thousands of debt.