I read with interest Inside Higher Ed’s story about the various university-related ballot measures at issue Tuesday. It’s a good story, but I had to chuckle when I read this:
Higher education officials in some states are on tenterhooks about next week’s midterm elections, when voters will decide whether to infuse some much-needed cash into colleges and universities — or, in some cases, to make it harder for states to do so.
Much-needed cash? The same universities that raise tuition at rates far beyond the rate of inflation, create student-debt loads that now exceed credit-card debt, and vastly expand their bureaucracies at the expense of teaching need even more money? And whose fault is that? Inside Higher Ed notes that the Tea Parties make it less likely that new education spending initiatives will pass. If so, then that’s reason number 1,317,841 to love the Tea Party movement.
Colleges can learn to live within their means.