January 11, 2018

No College Kid Needs a Water Park to Study

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/opinion/trustees-tuition-lazy-rivers.html?_r=0


"The unfortunate truth is that while most college presidents care deeply about their institution’s success, an important part of their job is to shake free more resources. They seldom initiate serious campaigns to contain costs.

This means it falls on trustees to be better prepared to help challenge costly proposals that don’t add educational value. When it comes to state schools, the states themselves should educate trustees to understand their responsibilities to the citizenry and students. Training on big-picture issues and higher-education trends, such as the financial trade-off between instruction and research, the costs of intercollegiate athletics, and the expansion of amenities, would help trustees develop courage to ask college presidents probing questions that look beyond institutional narratives and cherry-picked rhetoric."

Too much of our politics in our country is binary. Yes for profits are horrible and Obama's administration took steps to address the problem (steps sadly being unwound by de Vos and Trump). Public institutions also have to address whether they are providing the very best education at the lowest cost.