President Obama was too soft in the declaration of war (and peace treaty terms) he issued to university administrators over the spiraling cost of college education. Rather than simply demanding that tuition stops rising, he should have challenged universities to answer why the very best education – the type he got – should cost students any more than $6,700 a year.
"Universities, call me"
Student debt is a problem. A recent College Board report found that tuition and fees at public universities went up 8.3% in 2011 (twice the rate of inflation) to an average of $8,244, and private colleges 4.5% to an average of $28,500. At a time when the economy is in the doldrums and even bankers are being forced to take pay cuts, universities are still charging like it’s 1999.
That’s why the issue of student debt is one of the Occupy Wall Street grievances that really resonated with the wider community. It’s no surprise that President Obama – who dominated the youth vote in the 2008 presidential election (and looks set to again, according to the polls) – is looking to stay on the right side on the issue.
In his State of the Union the president declared: “Let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down.” Following that, at a speech to the University of Michigan, he outlined what he had in mind: Linking federal money given to colleges to their success in improving affordability (and value) for students.
Taxpayers who didn’t go to university, or who aren’t planning to, may wonder why their hard-earned dollars are subsidizing other people’s education. Especially, they might think, as a college education will ultimately benefit those students: they’ll get better jobs, make more money, and have a better life.
That at least used to be the case. Today, as we’re increasingly hearing, a college education not only doesn’t guarantee a job, it can mean a lifetime of debt. As primacy in education is central to the U.S. dominating the next century – regardless of whether you believe there should be government funding, or just loans for students – no one should want the best and brightest priced out.
Here a recent study by an Oklahoma State professor, Vance Fried, (entitled “Opportunities for Efficiency and Innovation: A Primer on How to Cut College Costs”) is instructive. He found that it’s possible to provide a first-class undergraduate education for only $6,700 a year.
The key, he shows, is changing the way that universities are run, and introducing efficiencies, such as cutting the size of the college administration, increasing class sizes, eliminating unpopular programs, and separating research from teaching (although liberal arts colleges don’t cost any less).
None of these will be popular with universities, and one can predict some of the objections: Cutting unpopular programs? But they’re valuable. Bigger classes? But that will lower standards. Separating research from teaching? But it’s part of some college courses, like in the sciences. Cutting the size of the administration? You can be certain that college staff won’t be short of reasons to fight that.
No cuts are ever painless, and perhaps some of these won’t be necessary if other efficiencies can be found, but the price needs to stop rising. The current system isn’t working, and universities – and the government, if it is involved in funding – should act, before students do. Or rather before students do en masse: Because you can be certain that some have already put off attending college, or the college where they could prosper most.
If tomorrow’s would-be leaders are deterred from attending university, or taking the most suitable courses, because of the debt they’ll accrue, that’s bad news both for the universities, and the country. Charging only $6,700 for the type of education President Obama received may be a long shot, but don’t the best of teachers encourage students to dream big?
Daniel Freedman is the director of strategy and policy analysis at The Soufan Group, a strategic intelligence consultancy and a columnist for Forbes. His writings can be found at dfreedman.org.He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al Qaeda.”
