Summary
- An investment that has excellent growth opportunities for the 2020s.
- Aspen offers quality education at affordable cost.
- The growing nursing shortage is finally being dealt with.
- The company will turn EBITDA positive in 2020.
- There is a risk that the company’s vision may not be turned into reality, as is the case with all high growth prospects.
The fact that higher education has become a major financial burden for many families longer makes the headlines. It has become a sad fact of life. Not only is the cost of tuition and other fees out of control, questions are being raised if the investment itself is worth the time and money. The total amount of outstanding student loans reached an all time high in 2019, at $1.41 trillion, according to the credit reporting agency Experian. That is a 6% increase from 2018 and a huge 33% spike since 2014, when total debt was $1.06 trillion. Total student loan debt today exceeds total credit card debt. Depending, of course, on the major and the profession that the student chooses for his or her career, the ROI on the total cost of a college education may be very low. And the payback period may actually be decades into the future. The McCourt school of Public Policy at Georgetown University ranks 4500 colleges and universities by return on investment. The study A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4500 Colleges may be accessed via this link. The results are not pretty.