<p>"President Barack Obama fired a warning shot at the nations colleges and universities on Friday, threatening to strip their federal aid if they 'jack up tuition' every year and to give the money instead to schools showing restraint and value.</p>
<p>... 'We are putting colleges on notice,' Obama told an arena packed with students at the University of Michigan.</p>
<p>'You cant assume that youll just jack up tuition every single year. If you cant stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down.'</p>
<p>... Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, said schools should be challenged to find ways to restrain costs, but they cant continue to make up for state cuts. Money for state universities in Michigan dropped by 15 percent in this years state budget, and many including the University of Michigan raised tuition to help make up for the lost support."</p>
<p>There have been rumblings of change coming in federal campus-based programs and I wouldn’t be surprised if colleges will have to compete for funds or at least meet new standards to receive them. That seems to be the general idea:</p>
<p>O-blah-blah. Yada. Yadda. Yadda! Never abandoned his “educator’s” mentality where talking “good” is the game, and the doing never important nor necessary. </p>
<p>The Obamas’ record on educational matters has been a disaster since Day 1, starting with the hypocrisy-oozing position on the Washington Voucher program. On the one hand, suborning the continuing support of the unions, and on the other hand, having the Mrs. sitting among poor DC children and singing Kumbaya between exotic adventures abroad with the little Friends. The educational stimuli plans are nothing else than a huge waste that simply delayed much needed reform. </p>
<p>The saddest part is that it will last for another 1/2 a decade.</p>
<p>Blood pressure meters create hypertension. Thermometers cause fever. </p>
<p>Sixty years of spinelessly abdicating our education decisions to the service providers and their leadership gave us the abysmal state we are in. Generations of corrupt and vile politicians from both sides of the aisle ruined our schools.</p>
<p>In my birth country the system is one size fits all, one curriculum, set of books, national entrance exams, the works. Sucks wind.</p>
<p>In the US, you can CHOOSE where your kids will go to school by moving to the right places. Free market and all that jazz… Are you worried about others achieving their educational goals, are you stuck in a bad school district, or do you object to public education out of principle?</p>
<p>The school system my kids attend(ed) is #1 in our large, industrialized fly-over state, and I really like it. All you have to do is to move into our fair city of 100,000 or so and it’s free - who would have thunk. Our kids ace the state and national tests, we send a bunch of kids to the top 20 schools every year, and everyone is happy. We do this with some of the lowest per student cost in our state.</p>
<p>Exactly what is wrong ‘at the national level’, especially given the fact that the ‘national level’ is merely a figurehead?</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just me, but I see absolutely nothing in the Blueprint for Education that helps make college more affordable. Nothing. It is more rhetoric … just another political piece of c**p that means absolutely nothing (although mandates like scorecards are bound to add some more regulations to be followed, increasing the administrative burden on schools). I am so very tired of empty speeches that serve to rile people up without offering anything concrete.</p>
<p>Tuition is too high. Funding is too low. People keep paying more than they can afford, borrowing to do so.</p>
<p>Our state has been cutting for a few years … there is just no money in our state. We don’t have much in the way of state grant money, as that is limited to a small amount & just for a small number of students. UM is our state flagship, and it is expensive … but S went to a 3rd tier public freshman year that wasn’t much less (although they had better merit aid than UM). Tuition hikes are ridiculous. </p>
<p>How on earth did things get so out of hand? And how do we get them back on track?</p>
<p>In Michigan, a lot of people may try to point out that public university administration employees were unionized - at least that was the prevailing idea when Mrs. Turbo attended a public university in the Detroit metro area. I did, too, and found that the tuition was quite astronomical by my previous standards… And true enough, the admin staff at the university were unionized. </p>
<p>But, the place ran like the German railroad. Any kind of paper, information, whatever, was handled well and proficiently and professionally (unlike Cajun State which was run by student aides). Lots of new buildings, good faculty / student ratio, etc.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, many of my coworkers sent their kids OOS (my officemate’s son went to Virginia Tech, a lot cheaper OOS back then than U of M instate). I had a few friends at U of M and visited them once in a while, and the place is very nice, top notch education, but, to my mind at least, built under the ‘the sky’s the limit’ budgetary option. Awesome school and if my kids got in I’d sell a kidney and send them there, but expensive…</p>
<p>How did we get there? people willing to pay I guess.</p>
<p>I can tell you that the staff at UM are not highly paid, nor are they highly paid at the other state schools in Michigan. You can actually see what people at the state schools earn … you can google it. Students used to tell me I was worth more! I know for a fact that jobs requiring similar skills in private industry pay more than what the staff at Michigan’s university’s (including UM) earn.</p>
<p>Administrators & profs are a different story … but I don’t know what an equivalent salary in private industry would be for a prof, so can’t comment on that. Administrators are worth every penny they pay themselves, right? ;)</p>
Well, legislatures have tried feeding the beast for decades. That hasn’t worked out very well; the beast keeps getting larger and hungrier. Could it be time for a diet?</p>
<p>
From what my academic friends tell me, this is one of the problem areas.</p>
<p>On average Municipal, State and Fed workers now make 50% more than their equivalent counterparts in the private sector. Add in their awesomely generous and expensive bennies and it’s almost twice as much. There is no mathematical way the U.S. taxpayer can pay what public workers say is obligated to them without the continuance of our massive and ruinous debt buildup and its associated terrible consequences. </p>
<p>Ergo; The U.S. will be facing Greece like consequences in just a few years hence.</p>
<p>The White House is planning to put together a scorecard to assist families in searching for colleges. Here is their link asking for input. I don’t know if this is or is not money well spent, but I will be curious to see the end result.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for Obama, Economics 101 says that the more subsidies the government provides, the higher the cost will go.</p>
<p>If a student can pay $10, and the government gives the student $5, now the student can pay $15 and the school can charge $15 when previously it could only charge $10.</p>
I know for a fact that jobs requiring similar skills in private industry pay more than what the staff at Michigan’s university’s (including UM) earn.</p>