WE Blog

The middle class was created by the post-WWII GI bill that helped thousands of soldiers go to college. The effect of college becoming so expensive is that the middle class is becoming more and more difficult to attain or maintain for those born into families who aren’t able to substantially assist their children/grandchildren to go to college. Sure, many can still “borrow” their way through college, but upon graduation the loan repayment burden can be so oppresive that graduates can go ten years or longer without being able to satisfy this burden. So many students have to settle for less of an education, less of a job, and have to relegate their “American dreams” to the shelf, and resign themselves to having to live from paycheck to paycheck for the rest of their lives. This issue very much is about the survival of the middle class, and the preservation of the ability of students who have the brains and the drive to climb the ladder out of poverty.

Schools at any level have so many needs, there is not enough money to go around. They then tend to price themselves out of business with their business being to educat our kids. The colleges have a monopoly on degrees and need some competition. Hold their feet to the fire and say no tuition increase for 5 years and to start with, back a few years.

It is time for some investigative reporting on the wealth of college endowment funds and the waste in college spending priorities.

It is time for some investigative reporting about the amount of time most college professors actually spend TEACHING students.

The increase in the cost of a college undergraduate education has indeed increased substantially over the past decade or two, at a rate that exceeds the rate of inflation as I recall. Public or private college/university, the tuition and associated costs continue to increase.

As I have posted previously, many private colleges are taking steps to ensure the “middle class” can afford the education offered by these institutions. Stanford is the latest, no tuition for students whose family income is under $100,000, substantial assistance for room and board charges for those with incomes under $65,000.

Econ, I think your point on professors who don’t teach is worth pursuing; I presume by “don’t teach” you are referring to “don’t teach undergrads”, as many research professors (who, through obtaining grants help finance graduate student positions, their own labs, etc., at little to no cost to the schools themselves) do teach graduate students. BTW, this illustrates the dichotomy between major research universities and four year liberal arts colleges. At the latter, professors teach classes, as there are no grad students to teach the introductory classes; at the former, there are many introductory classes taught by graduate students and not professors.

On endowments; Econ, as I’m sure you are aware, there are many gifts to endowment funds that have “strings” attached. Examples with which I’m familiar: funding scholarships which are not general in nature (limited to students with certain majors, students from certain locales, e.g.); providing endowed chairs for professors. I’ve been told that less than one-third of the funds under administration by the K.U. Endowment Association represent “unrestricted funds”, that is, money that may be used for any use deemed necessary by the Endowment Association, including general scholarships an an example. Thus, there might not be as much money around for unrestricted use as one might think when looking at the total value of the endowment at any school. Should there be a critical look into sources and application of funds by endowment associations; yes. I have a belief that there isn’t much waste or misspending there, but it should be looked at. At one time, a large portion of the assets held by the KUEA were specifically tied to: a) Summerfield and Watkins-Berger scholarships; b) construction, maintenance and furnishing certain residence and scholarship halls at KU (those with “Pearson” and “Sellards” in the name). I’m sure there are other, more modest examples.

I’m obviously not familiar with any other endowment fund or association at other Kansas schools. Reviewing the information we receive annually from the two private colleges attended by our children, I note similar restrictions on many of the assets held by the endowment associations of the same.

Doug
Who INVENTED the whole idea of 529 College Savings Plans?
(A great inheritance tax loophole, by the way)

Where do you come up with the crap you post?

Where did Reagan ever try to keep people from going to college?

YOu are about ten years TOO LATE!!!

Come on!!! Do some REAL investigative reporting.

Tuition at Kansas supported colleges have increased 150% in the last ten years!!!

Compare that to healthcare increases.

Idiots.

Tom Paine is correct – it is the Board of Regents that must approve the tuition increases. But the Board of Regents is not a taxing authority. If the Republican-controlled (for the last 20 years) Kansas legislature will not shoulder its fair share of the costs of our public universities costs-of-doing business, then either those institutions go bankrupt (which won’t solve the problem of accessing a college education), or the Regents have to give them permission to charge the users – students. And that is where the rubber meets the road. The Kansas legislature – for the first time in the history of this state – in 2006 allowed the state’s general fund share of financing responsibility for our public universities to fall below 30%. So the cost of obtaining a degree is going through the roof thus pricing a degree out-of-range for many poverty-level and middle class families. A higher education at a public university is supposed to be reasonably available. The legislature is failing our citizens by not sharing part of the load of increasing costs, and keeping tuition costs reasonable.

A story that might be applicable here. In Kansas City, the toll to cross the bridge from downtown K.C. to old Municipal Airport was 25 cents back in the 1960’s. At some point, it was determined the City of K.C. did not need the revenue because the revenue bonds were about paid off.

SO, THE TOLL WAS REDUCED TO 10 CENTS.

Keep in mind the Municipal Airport/Broadway Bridge was a shorter route to north Kansas City and Kansas City north … but the free ASB Bridge a little to the east was the main one.

Holy smokes!! The reduced toll brought in more money than ever.

My point??

One industry that Kansas does pretty well … is provide good quality education in its colleges and universities.

So, Kansas should be encouraging students to come here from other states and other countries with lower tuitions … not discouraging them with higher out-of-state tuitions and penalties. This is short-sighted by people with economically blurred double vision.