<p>As</a> State Funds Dry Up, College Costs Skyrocket - Businessweek</p>
<p>This year, public school studentswho make up the vast majority of undergraduate studentsare bearing the brunt of the tuition increases. Tuition and fees for the current school year average $8,244 at public four-year colleges, 8.3 percent higher than in the 2010-11 academic year. Meanwhile, at public two-year colleges, tuition and fees went up a whopping 8.7 percent this year.</p>
<p>As private income dries up and property values drop, federal and state funds dry up. there is less money available to go around. It’s not just colleges, but K-12, police, fire, Parks & Rec., etc.</p>
<p>From the same article:</p>
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<p>The problem is that the public education have has never looked for easy ways to cut costs, or done what it should have, namely looked for cutting costs the hard way. It is a sector that has consistently overspent and mismanaged its resources knowing that the taxpayers will ultimately balance the books by increasing the revenues. </p>
<p>The escalation of costs has outpaced inflation without much concern for the sustainability of such financial model. The days of academic sinecures are over --or should be soon.</p>
<p>“The escalation of costs has outpaced inflation …”</p>
<p>This will generally always be true, mainly because colleges don’t outsource their services. The cost of things we buy are low due things no longer being made here, keeping inflation low. Colleges could lower wages, medical costs, financial aid, etc., to bring down tuition. Or provide video links to teachers in low-cost countries. There are certainly other ways to cut costs the hard way.</p>
<p>vonlost,</p>
<p>“video links to teachers in low-cost countries” ; now that’s one I’ve never heard of before. Makes me really want to make that my dream school.</p>
<p>But video quality is improving!!! ;)</p>
<p>Why don’t admins and tenured prof’s take a serious pay cut like everyone else has already? </p>
<p>Whoops! I just answered my own question. </p>
<p>Good luck with those increases. They (and you) deserve them.</p>
<p>Most private schools that would attract any interest here spend mulitples of what the top state U’s spends per student. And despite the “private” label they are heavily supported by their tax free endowments, deductible donations, and public research funding. So don’t lecture about cost containment Xiggi. Your have no clothes.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>No clothes? This is helpful when sharing the … naked truth.</p>
<p>I am a community college administrator who has not received a raise in 5 years, and has experienced a large increase in my share of health insurance. This year, I will also probably be required to take a 1-week unpaid furlough. I’m not complaining, I realize how bad the economy is; but it kills me every time I get lectured by the likes of xiggi or toblin, who I am quite sure have never had first-hand experience at balancing a college budget.</p>
<p>In the last 4 years, state funding at my college has fallen by 50%, yet we have been required to maintain or increase enrollment levels. We have laid off or not replaced a significant number of our employees, causing many of us to double-up on job responsibilities. Because of the lack of staff in Financial Aid, it now takes 4 months for students to receive action on their financial aid applications. Students are now finding it nearly impossible to get an Associate’s degree in only 2 years, because the classes they need are filled to overflowing and we don’t have the funds to add more sections. Instructors are being pressured to take 20%-25% more students in each of their classes to help take up the slack. No sabbaticals have been funded for the last 4 years. And, we have hired no new full-time faculty during that period, instead shifting more teaching responsibility to part-timers.</p>
<p>So, please stop lecturing me about sinecures - we have none. And, please stop lecturing me about my and my colleagues’ alleged mismanagement. Whatever profession you are in, I defy you to lose half of your funding and maintain (or increase!) your productivity. We consistently educate students at far less than the cost of the most inexpensive private schools, only to get battered by ignorant blowhards whenever we raise our tuition to remain solvent.</p>
<p>The only thing I agree with is, “good luck with those increases…you…deserve them.” And indeed you do - did you think that the same number of your students are going to somehow still be magically educated for half the cost?</p>
<p>I am deeply discouraged by the defunding of the public university systems in this country in order to continue to fund administrator salaries (and I’m not just talking college administrators) and overly high pensions.</p>
<p>In Illinois, it’s a massive problem for the less financially well off and the middle class. I think it is a “bad” bet, in terms of how we are choosing to “invest” our tax dollars as a state.</p>
<p>I know other states have similar problems.</p>
<p>^I do too. Where is the public service element to these upper-level administrative jobs? The fact that some are allowed to receive substantial salary and benefit packages from the public which are then augmented by substantial payments and perks from private, related foundations should make them a target in these times. And let’s not forget the “retired” administrators who come back to perform neglible services at a highly inflated rate of pay. When grad rates are falling and prices are rising to the point where the public can no longer afford higher ed, these issues should be addressed immediately.</p>
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<p>[Presidents</a> Defend Their Pay as Public Colleges Slash Budgets - Leadership & Governance - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Presidents-Defend-Their-Pay-as/126971/]Presidents”>http://chronicle.com/article/Presidents-Defend-Their-Pay-as/126971/)</p>
<p>I agree sk8ermom.</p>
<p>but, it’s not just the academic administrators, at least in Illinois.</p>
<p>All the public administrators are really highly over-paid. It’s not like they can argue they have done such a magnificent job, or something. The state is considered to be in as bad shape as Greece.</p>
<p>But, in terms of academic administrators, I do have to say it feels morally wrong the way they are siphoning off education funds in such a glutonous way as the kids can’t get into a section of the class due to understaffing. JMO</p>
<p>I agree that the salaries of the highest-level administrators at the big state universities seems to be far too high. But I think that too often this observation leads individuals to make overarching statements about public college mismanagement, to justify the dramatic cuts in funding to public colleges that have occurred in virtually every state, and to decry the rapid tuition increases that have resulted.</p>
<p>Far too high compared to what?? At those same schools you will have med chool faculty earning over $1,000,000. Coaches making more than that. What do similar jobs pay at private U’s? How much money has Gee helped attract to TOSU? Finally, the pay is peanuts in the overall scheme of the budget. This is just red herring stuff. Get to the real issues. You could cut their pay to ZERO and it would not make a bit of difference.</p>
<p>Everyone is always arguing that “this is peanuts or that is peanuts.”</p>
<p>sorry to say but we’re going to have get rid of a lot of peanuts…</p>
<p>What do you consider the “real stuff” Barrons?</p>
<p>The real stuff is $100,000,000 cuts in state support out of $400,000,000 totals. And that’s just an average one. There are worse. Many state U’s are now getting HALF of their inflation adjusted amounts in 1999-2000. And people wonder why tuition is going up faster than at privates. DUH. Most faculty have not had raises in several years and privates are gobbling them up now that the stocks are back up. Vicious cycle.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not going to disagree with that.</p>
<p>UCs cut their budget drastically. A few months ago, 3 top notch research professors quit UCSD on a single day to join Rice.</p>
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<p>Sorry, barrons, but I have to point out that this is not always the case. While the actual dollars may not be huge in comparison to the budget cuts, the practice of universities flaunting salaries and perks in the million dollar range is indicative of their overall business practices. I find it extremely distasteful when administrators grant themselves increases while cutting jobs in student-related support services such as financial aid. I’m sure that does make a huge difference to the students at those institutions, but they seem to have forgotten that the students are the reason that taxpayers support public education.</p>
<p>In some cases, there is so little oversight and almost no financial transparency leading me to wonder why they’re considered public institutions at all! If it were only a matter of a few salary/benefits issues that would be one thing, but the “sweetheart” deals that go on behind the scenes with the blessing of these administrators amount to much more than chump change. It appears that this tallied up to almost $100M at a single university, an amount which dwarfed the budget cut they received.</p>