Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
EDITORIAL: Pricing people out of education
Better solutions needed from the university system.
RAPIDLY, THE financial distinction between a public higher education and a private college or university is disappearing. At a time when education may be most important - the golden ticket to tomorrow's high-tech economy - costs are rising faster than families can absorb.
Several factors come into play.
One, clearly, is the unwillingness of legislators to maintain levels of public funding. At one time, for example, the University of Wisconsin system received about three-fourths of its funding through state sources. Today, it's about half - and falling.
On the campuses, cost control has not kept pace with fiscal challenges. Rather than cut costs and live within their means, officials have passed the higher prices on to students and families in the form of rising tuition charges. For example, in the 2007-2008 year, the UW Board of Regents approved a 5.5 percent tuition increase - and that was the lowest in seven years.
NATIONALLY, THE average tuition increase for the past year was nearly 7 percent. Contrast that with the prevailing cost-of-living annual increase the past several years, which generally ranged between 1-3 percent.
The latest discussion among UW Regents focuses on a scheme which would benchmark tuition rates at the various campuses to comparable schools in other states, then raise prices accordingly. Additionally, there is talk of add-on charges to create a pool of money to increase financial aid for needy students, a system critics call a “diversity tax.”
That's nothing sort of a redistribution plan, and smacks of a socialistic approach to take from some and give to others just because ... well, just because.
PERHAPS, UNINTENTIONALLY, the university crowd has identified one reason the taxpaying public, through its elected representatives, has become less financially supportive of higher education.
To many Americans the colleges and universities have become indoctrination camps, where they are obliged to pay big money in order to have liberal values drilled into their children's heads. Oftentimes, those values are not shared by the moms, dads and state taxpayers who are asked to foot the bills. So the taxpayers balk, and their elected representatives tighten the pursestrings.
Call it reality or a public relations problem, but by either label it results in erosion of public support for higher education. And that's a serious problem, especially for a state which tends to bleed college graduates. Wisconsin ranks low in the percentage of graduates in the general population, because the state tends to export its best and brightest.
THE PROBLEM won't be solved by a miserly approach in the legislature, or by the universities stubbornly jacking up tuitions every year. State government must stop allowing its share of higher education funding to slip. Higher-education decision-makers must do more to cut costs. And the schools must try harder to re-connect with citizens. They might start by showing more respect for those citizens' values, by making a very public commitment to wring politics out of the classrooms. This might come as a shock to some on campus, but most parents would prefer professors kept their political opinions to themselves.
To succeed in the global marketplace America needs exceptional public higher education. Affordable education.
RAPIDLY, THE financial distinction between a public higher education and a private college or university is disappearing. At a time when education may be most important - the golden ticket to tomorrow's high-tech economy - costs are rising faster than families can absorb.
Several factors come into play.
One, clearly, is the unwillingness of legislators to maintain levels of public funding. At one time, for example, the University of Wisconsin system received about three-fourths of its funding through state sources. Today, it's about half - and falling.
On the campuses, cost control has not kept pace with fiscal challenges. Rather than cut costs and live within their means, officials have passed the higher prices on to students and families in the form of rising tuition charges. For example, in the 2007-2008 year, the UW Board of Regents approved a 5.5 percent tuition increase - and that was the lowest in seven years.
NATIONALLY, THE average tuition increase for the past year was nearly 7 percent. Contrast that with the prevailing cost-of-living annual increase the past several years, which generally ranged between 1-3 percent.
The latest discussion among UW Regents focuses on a scheme which would benchmark tuition rates at the various campuses to comparable schools in other states, then raise prices accordingly. Additionally, there is talk of add-on charges to create a pool of money to increase financial aid for needy students, a system critics call a “diversity tax.”
That's nothing sort of a redistribution plan, and smacks of a socialistic approach to take from some and give to others just because ... well, just because.
PERHAPS, UNINTENTIONALLY, the university crowd has identified one reason the taxpaying public, through its elected representatives, has become less financially supportive of higher education.
To many Americans the colleges and universities have become indoctrination camps, where they are obliged to pay big money in order to have liberal values drilled into their children's heads. Oftentimes, those values are not shared by the moms, dads and state taxpayers who are asked to foot the bills. So the taxpayers balk, and their elected representatives tighten the pursestrings.
Call it reality or a public relations problem, but by either label it results in erosion of public support for higher education. And that's a serious problem, especially for a state which tends to bleed college graduates. Wisconsin ranks low in the percentage of graduates in the general population, because the state tends to export its best and brightest.
THE PROBLEM won't be solved by a miserly approach in the legislature, or by the universities stubbornly jacking up tuitions every year. State government must stop allowing its share of higher education funding to slip. Higher-education decision-makers must do more to cut costs. And the schools must try harder to re-connect with citizens. They might start by showing more respect for those citizens' values, by making a very public commitment to wring politics out of the classrooms. This might come as a shock to some on campus, but most parents would prefer professors kept their political opinions to themselves.
To succeed in the global marketplace America needs exceptional public higher education. Affordable education.
 |
||
| On this date... |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of beloitdailynews.com.
Submit a Comment
Login below to post your comment. |
Not yet a member? Use the form below to register. |
Wally wrote on Mar 11, 2008 11:06 AM:
Reference is made to the state's share slipping from 75% to 50%. For the Madison campus -- the campus that all of the others like to bask in the glow of -- the state's contribution has shrunk to less than 20 cents on the dollar. This is no less than shameful.
Wisconsin taxpayers owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to retiring Madison Chancellor John Wiley for his efforts over the past 7 years to find private contributors willing to help make up what the state has failed to give to the Madison campus during his tenure. He is also owed a debt of gratitude for his willingness to work for about half of what other Big Ten Presidents are paid. He will be sorely missed. "