On the cost of Education

[Belsnickel]

(07-26-2016, 06:30 PM)JustWinBaby Wrote: And the actual % of tuition (never mind room & board) going to those professors is still small.

Growth in administrative services, to expand student services (like "safe places"), and things like luxury dorms and lazy rivers.  That all has a lot to do with the explosion in tuition costs....made possible by, again, easy money.

If you do the math, a class of 30 people should each pay about $700 per class to support a total salary & benefits for a professor in the neighborhood of $240k (before any other state/taxpayer support).  For business classes, that's most non-Execs will make in the private sector.   But practically speaking, that's only for advanced classes and could cut that in half for lower-level classes.

5 classes a semester would mean you should pay about $5000 per year in tuition, for you teachers.  Then of course you have books and food, and a facilities (including room) and administration charge.

Now if you want to involved taxpayer support, look at that facilities and administration charge.  It is necessary, but not really mission critical to the quality of learning experience.  That was as a taxpayer I have a say in how much "free" education I'm supporting, as opposed to handing out blank checks for rock climbing walls.

Yes and no. Yes, a small % goes to salaries and a lot goes to administrative costs, however tuition funds can only be used (at least in public schools in Virginia, and likely most others around the country) for costs associated directly with education. The fund for the business of education is provided in part from tuition and in part from the state government. Other fees pay for student activities, housing, meals, athletics, and other auxiliary services. These funds cannot use tuition money and they cannot be allocated state funds.

Now, these fees have increased and some schools (admittedly we are one of these) like to wrap some of these auxiliary fees in with tuition to essentially hide them, but we do have to provide a breakdown of this on our website in several places to show where this money goes.

Fund accounting is fun!