9/5/2011: Back in the day, that was about what I paid for tuition in real dollars, if you forget about that year in the ivy league, which I mostly have. This was not because college was cheap, it was because of heavy subsidies from the taxpayers. Those subsidies are gone forever, and Texas Governor Rick Perry is proposing to respond by lowering the cost of production of college degrees. The NYT has a long debate. The snarkiest professor award? “I hope the governor does not have plans for a $10,000 medical degree.”
Some people hope that computer based improvements in teaching technology will make Perry’s plan possible. As it happens, the NYT also recently had a long story on that (in K-12). Upshot? It’s not working. Schools have spent large amounts of money on technology, and have nothing to show for it.
I think they’re looking in the wrong place for inefficiencies. What about computer based improvements in administrative technology? Could Pernsteiner be replaced with an Excel spreadsheet?
Yes, and maybe they can run the public schools for $2500 per student per year. Or why not less, since K-12 has always, understandably, cost less than college?
Or why not run the state police for what, 1/6 the present cost? Or cut medical insurance by like amount? Or corporate profits? Or how about the military? We obviously had too many troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, right?
But I wonder, is Perry proposing to cut Texas athletics to 1/6 the present level?
It’s worse than I first thought. From the blogs, it seems clear that Perry is talking about reducing the total cost — not tuition — to $2500 per year per student.
Even at UO, the total cost — only including student education related costs i.e. excluding research, dorms, athletics, etc. — is something like $14,000, give or take a thousand or two.
So yes, even at UO, you’d be talking about reducing expenditures per student by about 5/6.
Now, this simply can’t be done. Even if you eliminated everything but the departments — no libray, not buildings + grounds, no registrar, no nuthin’ — you’d have to fire about two-thirds of the faculty and staff.
Nobody remotely knows how to do this. Nothing in the way of computer technology is close to ready for this.
No, this is simply nuts. Perry is listening to anti-higher education fanatics — businessmen in Texas; a few crank professors in other states.
It’s amazing to think that this guy might be President, and to think how lame the current occupant is that this is even a possibility.