08-24-2022, 12:19 PM
(08-24-2022, 10:05 AM)Dill Wrote: Pally, I usually agree with you, but not this time, at least with your assessment of what is driving college costs higher.
People often view universities as "businesses" which simply respond to market signals. That's not quite true, especially for public universities.
The most direct driver of tuition rise, especially in public universities, is their steady defunding.
E.g., in most states, public universities cannot decide their own tuition rates, like corporations charging whatever the market will bear. Rather, state legislatures do that, and also determine their budgets. Since the 1980s, there has been a concerted effort on the part of the American right to make universities more and more market dependent, in part by eroding tenure and academic freedom--thus undermining an institutional source of "leftism." From the 60s onward, Republicans began defunding universities and pushing business "alliances" to make up for the lost income, and to make their research programs more responsive to business needs and ideology.
There are other drivers as well, to the degree that universities, while not businesses, have become more and more like them, competing for students with brand new dorms with student "suites" and exercise gyms. Also, Administrations have become more top heavy, in some cases to the point that administrators outnumber faculty by 2-1. But first and foremost is the public defunding.
Oh come one, no one is supposed to disagree with me...lol.
I think we actually can agree that there are a myriad of reasons contributing to tuition increases. The challenge comes in when the schools are encouraging loans to pay for these increased costs and the students get them, the schools, in turn, have no incentive to control those costs. That is why the conversations cannot be just about paying for the "product" but that is the only side that is being addressed. As long as the end user gets their money, they can get away with charging whatever they want.
Fueled by the pursuit of greatness.
