Thursday, March 08, 2012

baby-boomer pensions and medicaid killing state higher ed...,

NYTimes | As I’m sure you know, college tuitions have been skyrocketing for decades — with growth outpacing the Consumer Price Index, gasoline and even that great bugaboo of out-of-control costs, health care.

Here’s a chart showing price changes in these categories. The lines represent the price in a given year, as a percent of the price in 1985. For example, if a line reaches 200, that means prices in that year were 200 percent of those in 1985, or twice as high.

College tuition and fees today are 559 percent of their cost in 1985. In other words, they have nearly sextupled (while consumer prices have roughly doubled).

There’s a lot of debate about why college costs have risen so much. Many people assume that schools are spending too much money on frivolous things like climbing walls and Jacuzzis. That’s true for a handful of elite schools, but not for a vast majority.

Some of the rising cost has to do with other services schools have been adding over the last few decades, like mental health counselors and emergency alert systems. And certainly there are other inefficiencies that have crept into the system as higher education has become more things to more people.

But at least at public colleges and universities — which enroll three out of every four American college students — the main cause of tuition growth has been huge state funding cuts.

Every recession, states face a budget squeeze as their tax revenue falls and demand for their services rises. They have to cut something, and higher education is often a prime target.

Why? Struggling states have to prioritize other mandatory spending, like Medicaid. Higher education usually falls under the “discretionary spending” part of the budget — and in fact is often one of the biggest programs, if not the biggest, in the discretionary category.

State legislators also know colleges have other sources of funds to turn to.

“If you’re a state legislator, you look at all your state’s programs and you say, ‘Well, we can’t make prisoners pay, but we can make college students pay,’” said Ronald Ehrenberg, the director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and a trustee of the State University of New York System.

College students do end up paying more. But in the past, after the economy recovered, most states did not fully restore the funds that were cut. As cuts accumulated in each business cycle, so did tuition increases.

22 comments:

Dale Asberry said...

So it would be fair to say that education cuts and student loans are hidden healthcare subsidies?

CNu said...

 At the state level at least, I believe that's a fair assessment. The extent to which entitled and now geriatric baby-boomers have mortgaged the future is staggering...,

Dale Asberry said...

{Where's our squeaker in residence on this topic??}

CNu said...

Which one?

CNu said...

Too many entitled, parasitic, boomers, not enough contracting real economy to go around...,  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223632111866416.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_News_BlogsModule

Dale Asberry said...

The One Who We Would Have to Make Up!

CNu said...

Oh, make no mistake, he's not alone...,

Big Don said...

BD would have no problem with paying off the "mortgage."  Do it TODAY...!
Start by deleting Medicare, Medicaid, SocSec, HEW, HUD, OSHA, EPA, Dept of Educ, Disability, SNAP, HeadStart, NCLB, and all their bloated budgets in their excessive entirety.    You can have exactly as much of any of those services as you can pay for out of your own family pocket.  Delete all the prisons, including all the prisoners - just set up a gallows outside the courthouse.  The way it was when the country was *healthy* in the 1800's.

Now, who is going to squeal...? __ HINT:  It won't be the responsible productive members of society...

CNu said...

Now, who is going to squeal...? __ HINT:  It won't be the responsible productive members of society...

lol, like the ones who've fed off the taxpayer funded warsocialist trough their entire adult lives?

Big Don said...

...also Fannie, Freddie, Dept of Labor, BLS, et al ...

Dale Asberry said...

Dang Donnie, you're a day late and a dollar short!

Big Don said...

Negative... the ones who prevented your kids from learning Russian in the New Western Gulag Peoples' School System...

Big Don said...

Actually, those folks are still up to their old tricks, just changed their tune a bit.  Instead of Liar Loans and Refinance-Your-Home-As-An-ATM-Machine, now they are hitting on anyone with a decent equity to take a gov't-insured Reverse Mortgage (HECM program).  What isn't apparent in their (well-hidden) numbers, you give away about half of your equity as soon as you sign on the line which is dotted.  And Uncle picks up the tab if your home should depreciate to zero or less before you croak, so the lender is made whole.  Our mailbox is getting a torrent of these offers like in the old Re-Fi days...

Dale Asberry said...

I was, uh, naturally, referring to your late arrival to the discussion.

CNu said...

lol, and um, according to exactly what parallel universe, alternative history narrative would that have ever even conceivably taken place Don?  If I recall my history correctly, it was Truman who betrayed Stalin in the small matter of nuclear weapons, and, the only territories ever subject to the policy of warsocialist "containment" were central and eastern europe - but maybe there's an alternate reality historical model to which you subscribe...,

Big Don said...

Recognizing this was before your time, circa 1960 folks in America were building fallout shelters and school kids were practicing "duck & cover."  BD even briefly had an ED-style Side Hustle in those days building hand-cranked filtered ventilation systems for a couple co-warsocialist-workers who had in-home basement shelters. In addition, BD belonged to a NatGuard unit doing weekend drills simulated firing Nike Ajax missiles against Russian bomber attacks.   Good Grief, CNu, what do you think inspired, "Dr. Strangelove"...??  The threat was no joke.  If JFK hadn't stared down Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis... 

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/nike-ajax.htm  excerpt: "
By 1958, the Army deployed nearly 200 Nike Ajax batteries around the nation�s cities and vital military installations. Soon thereafter, the Army began gradually deactivating the Nike Ajax batteries and replacing them with the longer-range nuclear-capable Nike Hercules. The Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM) deactivated the last Nike Ajax batteries guarding the Norfolk, Virginia, area in late 1963. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Zgyp4HgNU 

Big Don said...

...in fact, on the roof of the Seattle high school BD earlier had attended, there was installed a big-ass Air Raid Siren they used to blow-off for a minute-or-so at noon on Wednesdays for test purposes.  It was there until around 1970...

CNu said...

lol, all manner of crazy propaganda worked more effectively back in those days http://subrealism.blogspot.com/2011/12/now-i-know-why-i-married-you.html

What inspired Dr. Strangelove (remembering this is Stanley Kubrick we're talking about now) was the patent ABSURDITY of all that clowning around you all were doing, and, the insanity of the warsocialist high-command that had you doing it. (unless of course Jack D. Ripper, Buck Turgidson, and Maj. Kong strike you as perfectly sane)

Big Don said...

...if you want to call Russian attempt to put medium range missiles in Cuba -- "Absurd Clowning Around..."

John Kurman said...

I've no proof, although no one has done any proper digging into the archives on this, that Khrushchev completely snookered JFK by putting missiles in Cuba with no warheads in them. K trusted Castro about as far as he could spit. And anyone wily enough to make it through Stalin's cabinet and come out on top is probably the same kind of guy that could make a wet-behind-the-ears President get all sweaty-balled in his boxers over a little brinksmanship. Now, that's chess playin'.

K had big, big, balls, and the US was played for a chump.

Big Don said...

Easy for y'all Monday Morning Quarterbacks to ridicule the early 60's from a 21st century perspective.  However, in those days, information did not flow freely like today. Nobody knew WTF in real time.  No internet, no CNN, no comm or spy satellites, no nuclear sub fleets peeking and sonarizing, no cellfones, no email, it was a major inve$tment just to call your buddy "long-di$tance" in another state.  Now with 50 years of historians analyzing it from every angle and obscure record, y'all think yer so smart....

cnu said...

Lol, Don, I collect used books and one of my focus areas is out print journalism, current events, history, and analysis from the 20th century. I find it absolutely fascinating how much information was disclosed in texts from the 50's, 60's and 70's.

I AM so smart precisely because I take the time to drill down to what would normally be considered excruciating or academic detail, but THAT'S what keeps me from substituting faith-based and narrative shorthand for living-memory history. THAT'S why you and I will never see eye-to-eye on some of your cherished but sorely uninterrogated theories and beliefs.

Master Arbitrageur Nancy Pelosi Is At It Again....,

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