Education
Back to School Blues
What's missing from the president's education bus tour?
Posted August 24, 2013
I got the back to school blues!
I already had it, before President Obama began his education bus tour, but his tour has made me feel even worse. I’m not saying the President shouldn’t try. He definitely should try, and he is saying some of the things that need to be said. College tuition is rising too fast, and parents and students are facing huge financial burdens. Everybody is in agreement about the cost problem. But that’s not why I got the back to school blues.
Do you remember the story of a drunk who is looking for his keys under the street light? A passerby asks the drunk, “Why are you looking for your keys under this light?” The drunk responds, “Because that’s where the light is, stupid!” We keep talking about the increasing costs of higher education, and now President Obama is on an education bus tour making speeches about the burden of higher education costs for middle class families, but we keep looking under the street light. Why is the cost of higher education rising?
The answer is a secret known only to those in higher education, but I will give you a hint: Simply look at the rise in the cost of administration versus the cost of everything else on campus. The dirty secret of higher education is that the cost of administration has risen far, far faster than the cost of anything else, including the cost of faculty. Indeed, the rising cost of administration is one reason why universities have resorted to hiring more and more faculty as adjuncts and in non-tenure track positions. Over half the courses in higher education are now taught by non-tenure track faculty. This is definitely not good for students.
How has this happened? How has the cost of administration risen so fast? The simple answer is unfettered power! There was a time when most of the university administration was carried out by faculty. But faculty left administration to concentrate on research and teaching, and a professional class of administrators took over universities. On paper, university administrations are monitored and kept in check by boards of governors and faculty senates, but in practice there is no real control. University boards of governors are too far removed, and faculty are just too busy trying to get the next publication and grant; neither have the time, resources, or information necessary to keep administrations in check.
University administrations have become what all unchecked bureaucracies become: bloated, inefficient, and very, very expensive. This is not the fault of any single administrator, it is the fault of an entire system that has given university administrations unlimited space to grow. For every one tenure-track professor teaching in a classroom, there is now an army of administrators pushing paper and electronic files around. There are also scores of vice presidents and associate vice presidents and assistant vice presidents and provosts and associate provosts and assistant to the associate provosts and deans and associate deans and…..you get the picture.
How will this all end?
Perhaps students and parents will stage a successful revolt? Perhaps faculty will help in the revolt? Or maybe university administrations will reform themselves? Perhaps the new universities, using more distance learning, will help reform the entire system? Perhaps the free market will provide a solution?
No, not likely! I don’t see any of these things happening. Higher education reform will not come from the inside or from the market. Monopoly systems do not reform in this way. The only hope of reform is through outside pressure. But the people standing outside are not looking in the right places. They keep looking for the key under the light.
Suggestion for the presidential bus tour: launch an independent study of university costs, and demand that universities and colleges provide specific numbers to arrive at independent assessments of the rising cost of administration. This will set the stage for serious higher education reform.