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 Several candidates during the presidential primaries
advanced plans of how they might alleviate the effects of college
debt by permitting individuals to refinance loans while others
advocated various measures that might include providing free college
education for students at public universities. Interestingly enough,
no one seems to be speaking to the root of the problem itself and
that is what can government (at both the federal and state levels)
do to reduce the costs of higher education? As a career educator,
this is an issue that is near and dear to my heart, and it is one
that has troubled me over the years.
Taxpayers at the state and federal level are helping to subsidize
the rising costs of higher education, but few might know what
exactly they are supporting. We have witnessed a skyrocketing
increase in the costs associated with higher education since the
early-1980s when federally-backed student loans were made accessible
to all who might seek to attain a college or university degree. This
infusion of loan money unleashed a torrent of unbridled marketing
and expansion as institutions sought to make themselves more
appealing to the desires and interests of potential students who
were facing a “buyer’s market” of options as to where they might
choose to attend. Many institutions lost sight of their primary
purpose—providing a quality education—as they began to focus more on
special amenities that would make their campuses appealing and
suddenly “curb appeal” became more of a quality metric than did
graduation rate. All of this came at a cost.
 Associated with this frenzy of expansion came an expansion of
administrative personnel, often earning high salaries, who fancied
themselves as business executives who could manage a more efficient
academic mission at these public institutions. We now have state
universities that boast a 15:1 student-to-faculty ratio, which is
admirable, yet try to hide a 9:1 administrator-to-student ratio,
which is absurd. To repeat an earlier point, all of this comes at a
cost. Several European nations that have found the means to make
higher education free have managed to do this by streamlining the
educational process to a “bare bones” approach that focuses entirely
upon the quality of the education that is being provided and removes
the supposedly unnecessary frills from the equation. Any taxpayer in
the U.S. should be able to find out what is the percentage costs of
administration that is necessary to operate a public university, and
they should also be privy to the exact cost of how much it takes for
any public university to raise a dollar in development support.
These are facts that matter, and we must learn to reward the
efficient. [to
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 Federal support to higher educational institutions,
outside of grants and other aid that is made available to students,
comes in the form of grants-in-aid that are provided to support
research efforts by faculty at public universities. In many
respects, such grants are the lifeblood of many esteemed
institutions of higher education. In general, these awards are based
entirely upon the quality of the research proposals that are under
consideration, but what if one other factor was considered in making
such decisions? How successful an institution remains focused upon
its academic mission should be a point of consideration to guarantee
that federal grants are not being used to further the bloat of
unnecessary expenditures that expand the costs of higher education
at public universities. This would also motivate faculty to become
passionate advocates of real reform in keeping down the rising costs
of higher education.
I believe that there are very real measures that can be taken at the
state and federal levels to reduce the costs of higher education, so
it would be wise of public institutions to implement such savings of
their own volition. If this is done, then it is possible that a
combination of state and federal support can be used to fund
two-years of a community college education for those citizens who
seek to advance their education and training. Just as we have found
it necessary in the past to fund K-12 public education to prepare an
educated citizenry and workforce, the demands of the twenty-first
century economy require a greater skill set, and government must act
accordingly. Past related
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