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Michael Barone speaking at CPAC 2011. Photo: Gage Skidmore on flickr
The rising cost of higher education is one of the main ailments affecting America. The earnings differential between those with college degrees and those without has become greater during this recession. This is because the recession hit jobs like construction, which don’t require a college degree, especially hard.
So as college becomes more expensive and more important, it becomes harder for the poor to climb the economic ladder. American inequality is a fundamental problem today, and the rising cost of college doesn’t help.
With this context in mind, I recently had the displeasure of reading one of the most heartless articles I’ve ever looked at. This article, by conservative commentator Michael Barone, argued that the rising cost of college is due to government subsidies. Specifically, college is so expensive because the government keeps on giving money to poor people so that they can attend college:
…government has been subsidizing higher education with low-interest college loans, Pell grants, and cheap tuitions at state colleges and universities.
The predictable result is that higher education costs have risen much faster than inflation, much faster than personal incomes, much faster than the economy over the past 40 years.
What is Mr. Barone’s presumed solution? Stop giving federal aid to poor people who want to attend college! After all, “government subsidies can go too far.”
Firstly, Mr. Barone is wrong on why college costs are rising so exponentially. The value of “government subsidies” has in fact gone down as college tuition has risen. The federal Pell Grant gives low-income students money to attend college. When it was first introduced in 1979, it covered three-fourths the cost of the typical four-year university. Today it covers only about one-third the cost of a typical four-year university. For private universities, it amounts to barely more than one-tenth the cost.
But that’s almost beside the point. What this article really brought to mind is my fundamental problem with conservatism and the Republican Party. Mr. Barone’s article lacks a single note of empathy for the poor. Indeed, in today’s political climate, conservatives have actually made the phrase “helping the poor” sound like a bad thing.
And this pattern is not just related to the poor. It always seems that conservatives and Republicans are against actions helping those society has left behind – whether it be minorities, immigrants, the poor, women, or whomever. Fundamentally, and to speak impolitely but honestly, they just don’t give a damn about anybody unlike themselves.
–inoljt, http://mypolitikal.com/
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Just more of the Orwellian newspeak from conservatives. Sometimes I wonder if we were to scratch their skins if we would discover metal because underneath it all they are robots constructed by some Dr. Frankenstein on the hill. Their consistent litany of twisted ideology is like a recording that drones on and on.
One this is certain: their ideology is the ideology of the rich and it is based on the neoliberal ideology of Milton Friedman AND it is the SAME free-market ideology that is embraced by the leadership of the Democratic party including Barack Obama. Nothing will change in our nation until we replace the destructive myths that surround economic neoliberalism with an ideology that works for the majority. And as I’ve said before, the first step is to replace them. This multilevel marketing economics works well for the few at the top and they are not about to let go of it ever. We must replace them as we can never convince them.
Perhaps they are all robots. Perhaps the greatest weapon of mass destruction is a magnet.
How often have you read that the Master’s level graduating class at a major engineering or technical college included no American Citizen? Other countries send their best and brightest students here to be educated and you can bet they don’t return home saddled with the enormous debt burden carried by the typical American student.
I ran into a former student from my son’s high school. He was working the checkout at Walgreen’s. He had been admitted to a prestigious east coast university bu had to drop out because of money.
This hurts the individual student and more importantly, it hurts America’s competitiveness and economic leadership when we willingly and gleefully squander our human capital. This also acts a disincentive to students coming along behind when the see that academic excellence is not rewarded.
I suspect that those that advocate against any public investment in the common good will scream the loudest when the next great discovery in physics, or medicine or chemistry occur in India, or China or someplace else.
yeppers, instead of focussing on making higher education more affordable, the UC regents here in California vote several times a year to raise tuition and give themselves raises! How sweet a deal is that?
Our local colleges are also making the recruitment of international students a major priority because they can pay the tuition while our kids can’t because of the recession.
The way we treat college education in this country for our own citizens is appalling. I’m a fortunate beneficiary of the manner in which we viewed education in the 60s and 70s. For comparison, my first semester at a Calif State U was $96 for a full load. Text books (science/math major) amounted to around $100. I think the highest I paid was somewhere around $500 for a full semester. I feel so sorry for kids of today and the nation at large. The hostility conservatives have towards this nation and its people is astounding. I just don’t understand it.
BTW, Something people might want to take a look at is sending their kids overseas. In some instances foreign tuition can be less at a major, top tier university than in the US for its own citizens. Not only that, if they ever wanted to immigrate to that country, it would be a lot easier. Wish I’d done that.
Oh, forgot to mention that first semester was in 1972. Where is the edit function? Sheesh
Agree with article, however, is there a kernel of truth in it?
College tuition has been rising faster than anything inflation and professors’ salaries. Would it rise as much but for the student loans, etc. ? I’m not talking about Pell grants but haven’t Gov’t backed loans have contributed to students attitudes that, what the hell, I’ll just borrow my tuition, etc., and the college’s idea that they can charge whatever the hell they want? I know my kid had this view it was funny money and who cares, everyone else is on loans…
I agree the solution isn’t to end funding of college education. I’d go the other way and give all kids a free college education bought by the State/Fed but I’d like some requirement that the schools to charge much, much less. It shouldn’t cost 100K to get a college education.
I thought that was PLAN all along. More money for the wealthy, which in this case are the UC regents, and a more dumbed down US populace willing and/or forced to take whatever low-wage job comes along and be *damn* grateful for it.
Isn’t this the plan?? Your former student made the unfortunate “choice” to be born in the USA. Nowadays that means you must be dumbed down and have less and less choices, so that you’ll be damn grateful for that min. wage job (if you’re lucky, that is, to get even a min. wage job) at Walgreens.
The MOTU want the next wave of inventiveness, innovation, etc, to come from Third World countries, where the wage-slaves are already making low low wages, even in prof. jobs.
USA serfs better learn that this OUR fate, too. No conservative wants the poor or the minorities to rise up the ladder and have a chance anymore. There’s less of the “pie” for the fat-cats, these days, so the lower orders had better learn their “place” quick-smart. Check-out staff at Walgreens? That former student of yours now has a “Rolls Royce” job, my friend, and he’d better be damn grateful for it. No snark intended. That’s the way it is, and the sooner we all figure that out, the better… maybe then we can start figuring how to combat it.
A question:
Why has college education risen so much faster than inflation?
Where’s the money going?
“Fundamentally, and to speak impolitely but honestly, they just don’t give a damn about anybody unlike themselves.”
Indeed. “Fuck you, I got mine,” is the mantra of those who, due to fear, ideology and selfishness, have given up on the social contract, given up on the idea that we are all in this together, given up on reciprocal altruism. Barone’s argument is an articulation of this perspective and not a honest inquiry into the cost of higher education.
As a teacher and advisor at a large state university, I can tell you that subsidizing the education of those who don’t have the tuition money up front is no where near a significant reason for the rising cost of education. The two biggest reasons are dwindling public funds and the cost of expansion. The percentage of my univerisity’s operating budget that comes from tax dollars has declined from 27% to 22% since I have worked there and continues to decline (currently, our percentage is higher than surrounding states). This means that money has to be made up somewhere, and tuition is one of the first places the administration looks. Secondly–and partly because so little funds are public–the dominant model for the university is not an educational one but a business one. Like any other business, it is a competitive game for resources and customers. Every year more money must be made, more students recruited, more construction undertaken, more hiring, more, more, more. It is not a sustainable model. And that “more” has to be paid for, which is partly why tuition here goes up at a rate of 3-5 times that of inflation.
The hostility conservatives have towards this nation and its people is astounding. I just don’t understand it.
It is a bit astonishing, isn’t it? I do think it has a LOT to do with unbridled, unfettered greed, and the notion that there’s not enough to go around (at least in the mind of conservatives), so the poorer folk had better get used to being serfs.
I’ve long be a reader of Vanity Fair magazine, and while I don’t have specific links, I’ve noticed over the past couple of decades just how *lavish* the lifestyles of the obscenely wealthy have gotten. There has always been an upper class that lived way better & higher on the hog than the rest of us. I have nothing to prove things one way or another; more just a gut reaction from reading magazine articles… so take what I say with a giant grain of salt.
But it just *appears* to me that the lifestyles of those at the top have gotten way out of control, and there’s a pecking order amongst those mega-wealthy folks. At the end of the day, resources are finite, and money stops flowing.
We’ve gone into a major world-wide DEPRESSION owing to foolish & out of control greedy behavior by the mega-wealthy. Now they’re all scrambling to cling to their pieces of the pie, and the sh*t keeps hitting the fan because of their egregious & greedy behavior.
It’s no wonder that they’re turning on US workers and students because we have the nerve & temerity to demand a reasonable level of lifestyle. What they’re basically saying is: EFF you. They want to turn the USA into a third world banana republic where the mega-wealthy pay next to nothing in taxes, live in highly guarded communities and have to be constantly surrounded by security patrols… but then, they’ll be mega-rich beyond all measure and eff you to the peons.
That’s just the way I see it, but I think it’s something like that.
Go live in the third world country of your choice, and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.
I believe that a lot of the Russian Mafia who rose up out of the ashes of the former Soviet Union had to move to other countries, mainly England, to avoid being killed bc of their profligate and criminal and greedy ways and lifestyle.
It’s like that.
It mainly goes toward ever more growth and to make up for ever dwindling public funds, at least at state schools. Also, a big percentage of operating funds come from investments. When the stock market takes big hits like it has over the last few years, return on investments of course goes down. Concomitantly, a weak economy makes some potential donors reluctant to make gifts to schools. A poor economy, then, can generate a downward financial spiral for schools. But in spite of this, many schools still try to act on the idea that growth is an unmitigated good. The result is to take up the slack by tapping those with the least amount of power in the equation: The students.
Yes, there absolutely is a a lot of truth in it.
Colleges really have no incentive to control costs. Most students are guaranteed loans from the gov. Why should a university not build that new science building or negotiate aggressively with the unions. The kids are guaranteed the money.
Its one of the biggest scams out there. I hope the whole scheme blows up before my kids go. I have 10 years. That should be long enough. I am not going to push college anyway. I am going to push whatever interests them. College don’t mean anything now because everyone went.
I enjoyed my college years and learned a lot. Most of my colleagues though were just there because that is what your supposed to do. Really a waste. Thousands in debt for what on the job training could accomplish.
I saw a recent statistic on the U of Minnesota that 30 years ago the state funded 42% of university and that has dropped to 18%. Tuition is going up because the general population is NOT being taxed to contribute. As usual, Barone has his facts upside down.
And he should read up on Morrill Act signed by Lincoln in 1862 if he thinks government involvement in higher ed is some elitist east coast liberal idea.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts
“a “Rolls Royce” job”.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Those kind of jobs, ie. min wage, no benefits, no vacation, working till you drop, are the new dream jobs.
Because there will be no others. They’re actively out-sourcing to slave wages in other countries. Soon this will be what most jobs are like.
And this will effect the upper middle class and even the lower upper class soon. Because those jobs service the middle class.
What good is being a doctor when you have no patients. What good is being an engineer when there are no projects to work on.
They will feel it. But it’s going to take 5-10 years. Until then, buckle in, or dig in, cause it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Wow, that’s fucked up that they gave themselves raises.
We need to cut UC tuition – and the way to do that is by getting Democrats a 2/3rds supermajority in the state legislature.
Yeah, it’d be interesting to have gone to college overseas. I think in hindsight maybe I should have done that too. It’d be a lot more different and perhaps better.
I think too many Americans don’t think about doing that. We should.
It’s risen so much faster because there’s an unending demand for colleges. The money is wasted because demand never falls when colleges raise their tuition.
Very unfortunate.
Yeah, it’s fucked up.
At my college every single year they build a new multimillion dollar building after tearing down a perfectly good old one. Why do they do this? Because everybody else is doing it. So they have to “compete.”
It’s fucked up.