The problem isn’t only that higher education is unaffordable to many but that even at our highest-ranked colleges and universities, students aren’t getting much bang for their buck.
Since 1985, the price of higher education has increased 538 percent, according to a new study from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group that encourages trustees and alumni to foster improvement where institutions may be reluctant to go against popular trends.
For perspective, compare tuition increases to a “mere” 286 percent increase in medical costs and a 121 percent increase in the consumer price index during the same period, according to the ACTA.
College/University presidents are paid, or receive bonuses based on contributions, endowment etc. That’s not all bad, but the bigger picture of what has happened at larger institutions is, sadly, the Joe Paterno model. Paterno rasied huge amounts for the academic side of Penn State way before anybody esle thought about it in the 60s and 70s. Paterno essentially invented using successful sports teams to hit big donors for cash for teh university. So what we have now morphed into is spending multiple millions on winning sports teams so the president can then use that success to raise endowment money. If you doubt it, look at revered coaches like Howard at Clemson or Hinkle at Butler who stayed on for 30 or 40 years, win lose or draw who would be fired in a blink today after one losing season. The Department of Education will also lend a student how ever much the university wants him/her to pay in tuition with essentially no questions asked. These two things combine to allow universities, with their left wing desire to worship at the altar of “diversity” to offer degrees in gay/lesbian/african american/native american/women/etc, etc, etc studies, which qualify the graduate, with $200K in debt, to either flip burgers at McDonalds, and then go to a sports bar after work and root for the home team, or get a Masters degree in whatever studeis and actually attend the home games on campus, while teaching other ptential buger flippers how to accumulate $200K in debt with nothing to show for it. As I told a liberal friend who was bemoaning the cutting of research funds at her alma matre, Alabama, I could increase the research budget by $6M overnight by cutting Lou Saban’s salary to a measely $1M. The response I got was something similar to if I had suggersted that we sacrifice her first born child on an altar to Baal.
Why does the author equate going to college with being educated? That’s so old school. As the title implies, people go to college to get a job, not learn about the world, and the changing curricula attest to schools responding to the demands from their customers. The fluff courses are to build up necessary credits. It’s not about learning, it’s about having that piece of paper that says you are credentialed and lets you in the door.
One of the main things that has grossly inflated higher education tuition is the mass influx of government money into the system — which is what happens to prices of *any* industry that achieves Big Money from the State.