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Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education, by Charles Clotfelter (Princeton, 303 pp., $29.95)

THE emperor is not naked, he’s overdressed. Regarding the reasons for the cost escalation alluded to in his title, Mr. Clotfelter’s “principal findings” say it all: 1) Tuition has soared, but “financial aid to students has grown still faster.” 2) His study finds “a decrease in measured classroom teaching loads.” 3) Institutional governance by the faculty means virtually no limits on proliferating costs: “Featuring weak central control, a remarkable degree of freedom accorded to its faculty, and traditions of collegiality in governance, the university lacks any corporate goal other than the pursuit of excellence.” 4) The infusion of federal largesse likewise encourages cost escalation. 5) “Because of tenure, it is impossible” to enforce corollary cost limitations. 6) Research rivals teaching, driving up costs for both. We at Hillsdale College have been warning for over two decades that if trustees and presidents do not take back governance of their colleges, costs will skyrocket unabated. Pity our children, let alone our grandchildren. —George Roche

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George Roche

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Buying the Best: Cost Escalation in Elite Higher Education, by Charles Clotfelter (Princeton, 303 pp., $29.95)

THE emperor is not naked, he’s overdressed. Regarding the reasons for the cost escalation alluded to in his title, Mr. Clotfelter’s “principal findings” say it all: 1) Tuition has soared, but “financial aid to students has grown still faster.” 2) His study finds “a decrease in measured classroom teaching loads.” 3) Institutional governance by the faculty means virtually no limits on proliferating costs: “Featuring weak central control, a remarkable degree of freedom accorded to its faculty, and traditions of collegiality in governance, the university lacks any corporate goal other than the pursuit of excellence.” 4) The infusion of federal largesse likewise encourages cost escalation. 5) “Because of tenure, it is impossible” to enforce corollary cost limitations. 6) Research rivals teaching, driving up costs for both. We at Hillsdale College have been warning for over two decades that if trustees and presidents do not take back governance of their colleges, costs will skyrocket unabated. Pity our children, let alone our grandchildren. —George Roche