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Colleges urged to produce better information on how they spend money (wsj.com)
21 points by hhs 10 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 9 comments



This is a good, if very minimal, start. The cost of a college education is utterly absurd and the fault lies primarily with the administrators (and the people whose duty is to oversee them).

This is also adjacent to my views around student debt relief. I will never support any student debt relief that doesn't hold schools accountable for producing huge numbers of graduates with economically useless training. Schools need to be saddled with a large share of that liability, not just taxpayers.


Economically useful? Really?


Economical usefulness is the top reason people seek higher education.


"Well, we inflate tuition so we can give enough assistance so we don't have to pay taxes, because that makes use a tax exempt charity. And then we stuff nearly all the money into our endowment. Which is quite a lot because it barely takes the tuition the freshman class pays to pay for all the education of all of the students we have. And then we expand the Administration so we can milk more alumni and donors."



“Prior boards were merely ceremonial. If you’ve got a board that never asks about financials and just wants to talk about winning the next game or when the cocktail party is, they are not going to get a lot done,” he said.

I had a trustee (of a private institution) tell me "We just approve whatever the administration sends us." I'd long suspected that was the case but was shocked to hear someone say it out loud. I guess if you asked too many questions you wouldn't be re-nominated and you'd miss out on the dinners, swag, and honoraria.


Colleges spend like there’s no tomorrow

Previous Discussions on HN: (3-comments - 2023-08-11) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37090454

Previous Discussions on HN: (7-comments - 2023-08-10) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37074472


Somebody has to pay for all those failed politicians going into the ever-so bloated college administrations.


Higher ed is too important to be left to professionals, it seems.




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