Pueblog USa
Friday, January 05, 2007
Funding Higher Ed: Two Points of View
One asks the state for more higher ed money, saying it’s needed. The other says to the feds: why do you think they need it?
Today’s Pueblo Chieftain trumpets the need for more state spending on higher ed in the state, lauding the efforts of Colorado Succeeds to get the legislature to pump more money into the state’s colleges and universities.
Meanwhile, over on Townhall.com, Jason Mattera points out how fat cat universities don’t need any more money because they’ve got endowments with investment incomes that make third world countries jealous. He points out how tuitions keep rising, while at the same time, endowments keep increasing and federal government aid keeps increasing. And no one has effectively demonstrated why colleges and universities need the money, although he notices a lot of bloat in administrative positions.
While the reasons for administrative bloat are not the focus of his essay, it is obvious to this observer that colleges and universities are in the business of providing educational services to students and that the more degree programs they can sell, the better off they are. And one of the few large markets for PhDs is the higher education industry. It is more difficult to sell a PhD to someone, especially if they’re supposedly smart enough to earn one, if there is no market for it. So, they create the market by bloating up administrative positions.
It’s simple enough for almost any politician, or college graduate, to understand.
However, I will say that I’m not sure where the state’s universities and colleges fall on the list of institutions of higher education with hefty endowments. They are, for the most part, a couple of hundred years younger than many of the institutions cited in Mr. Mattera’s comments. It takes time to produce the kind of graduates and develop the kinds of friends who are willing to donate large fortunes.
Further, I do believe that our local university, CSU-Pueblo, does get the short end of the stick as far as state funding goes. It is quite a bit newer than the other colleges and universities in the state, and certainly does not have the endowment resources of say, School of Mines or CU-Boulder, which is certainly something to take into consideration.
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