College cost

The cost of higher education is rising faster than other cost and the reason is the number of staff people and the availability of federal student loans. Forty years ago, America’s colleges employed more professors than administrators. The efforts of 446,830 professors were supported by 268,952 administrators and staffers. Over the past four decades, though, the number of full-time professors or “full-time equivalents”—that is, slots filled by two or more part-time faculty members whose combined hours equal those of a full-timer—increased slightly more than 50 percent. That percentage is comparable to the growth in student enrollments during the same time period. But the number of administrators and administrative staffers employed by those schools increased by an astonishing 85 percent and 240 percent, respectively. Today, administrators and staffers safely outnumber full-time faculty members on campus. In addition the kind of courses offered has increased dramatically. Today at the University of Minnesota there are 765 degree programs. What ever happened to the three R’s. 90% of the population lives within short driving distances from a college or university so students can live at home and go to college. This cuts the cost by half or more. Going to school this way would reduce the need for student loans and provide the structure that many young people need.