Derek Bok once said of college presidents, they’re like exiled royalty and gambling addicts in that there is never enough money. Imagine how painful it must be when the amount of money not only stops growing, but decreases!

According to this Inside Higher Ed story, we’re facing a “crisis” in state funding of higher ed. The amount of money the states are putting into higher ed is down, and the outlook is grim. Paul Lingenfelter of SHEEO says, “Complacency about the adequacy and qality of public higher education puts the future of the American people in jeopardy — economically, intellectually, morally. Public higher education is not an optional priority.”

The implicit assumption here is that the previous funding levels were right and any decrease means inadequacy — followed by all sorts of horrors. But what if public higher ed was blowing lots of money needlessly before? How do we know that it can’t provide just as much if not more useful education with less money if leaders have to put their minds to efficiency?

I don’t think that crying “Wolf!” will do any good for higher-education appropriations. It just makes SHEEO look silly.