Most Public Colleges Face Budget Cut Threats in 2011

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For twenty five years our blue collar workers have known the truth of living in a nation in economic decline. Now it is time for those who thought they did "everything right" to learn the same harsh reality. Our government's response to to distract the populace with nonexistent or exaggerated threats and senseless wars. An old strategy .

Ed Lynch of NJ 8:37PM August 21, 2010

It is devestating to see that both public colleges and public lower schools are facing fiancial straits. In my state and surrounding states all have state "educational lottery". So where is all the lottery money going? Only one state in my area has shown that they are using the lottery assets for education where several new elementary and middle schools have been advertized as being build by "educational lottery" funds. So where is all the lottery money going?

mcreese of NC 8:08AM August 17, 2010

Just a day or two ago I read that the highest-paid state employee in my state is a university football coach, and though I'm *not* anti-sport, herein lies, I suspect, a major problem in funding, since athletic expenses go far beyond a coach's/athletic director's salary.
For a consistently leading team, sinking boatloads of money into sports, particularly football, can make a lot of financial sense when the school's sports status draws heavy contributions, so long as most of those funds can be used for purposes other than just sports. Even then, there's something seriously amiss when a school has full scholarships for every single player but in some other department doesn't have even a single *partial* one. Both these sometimes happen.
Though Texas has some world-class universities and a few high schools second to none, overall, the educational level is surprisingly low. But try telling Texans to devote more money to actual classroom education instead of fancy football stadiums and you immediately hit a brick wall, in many cases. Decades ago, when I was in high school, my tiny, rural district voted on a bond issue to build a new school. There wasn't enough money to build a football stadium -- but 40% -- 40%! -- of the bond money was spent to build a basketball gymnasium. Meanwhile, we had no air-conditioning and limited academic offerings. In fact, we had exactly zero foreign languages, and only two sciences, one year of chemistry and two of biology (the state minimum at the time; everything we had, academically, was state minimum).
That's crazy.
Another factor is too many administrators who are too highly paid. How many chief's do we need??? Look at many universities' legions of VP's, Ass't. VP's, etc. My undergraduate university made two really smart moves when I was there. Though the economy was sound, when the chancellor, president, and several VP's left at the end of the same year, the regents combined the chancellor and president's position and combined some of the VP ones, eliminating several jobs -- and saving a lot of $. And they earmarked every last cent for front-line education -- classroom supplies, library books, etc.
BTW, I'm a former university instructor with years experience, and I love teaching. It runs in my family: my Mother is a retired teacher, and my Sister and a cousin are both still teaching, all in the public schools. I'm hardly anti-education.
As a closing note, to the two people (so far) who have made snide remarks about "liberal professors," two points: a great many professors aren't liberal by *any* measure; both liberals and conservatives can be forward-looking without being loony tunes (or, I suspect, you meant "socialist" or "communist"); further, to the person who added brick-and-mortar buildings are no longer needed because of the Internet -- you can largely thank those "commie" professors for that. Where's Silicon Valley, for instance? -- Uh-huh -- in liberal country. EDUCATION, not politics, please!

MekhongKurt 7:40AM August 10, 2010

The U. S. colleges administrators are more interested in spending all the public and private monies they can get, but it isn't using the monies in reducing the tuition of the students. In an economy that has been spiraling downward for years the tuition just keeps going up and up! The incentive for the colleges to conserve must not be high on the administrative agenda! At a time we need a good college education for our young to compete globally we have a system that is intent on spending and much as possible and then go to the public trough with their hand out for more and the students and potential students be damned. A student that has to borrow $100,000 for his degree before he even has a job is shameful and a failure on the part of college or university that charged such outrageous amounts! The recession is for the poor and ignorant, and the pompous narcissist administrators are exempt these problems!

Lee hansen of MI 2:19PM July 30, 2010

American's must be the dumbest creatures on earth!
We have the technology NOW! We NO LONGER need these big huge brick buildings to heat and cool, with their ultra liberal professor's slinking up and down the hallways!
IT IS CALLED THE INTERNET! Everyone can study at home, at a time THEY please. EVERYONE has a computer, and most have the internet. Yes, I know there are the leeches out there that will want Obama to buy them a new laptop and pay the monthly internet fee, and pay perhaps for some private tutoring, since they "don't be knowing" how to read.
All school buildings, elem., H.S. and Univ's. are obsolete!
Wake up America! It's 2010. Come out of the past!

Pearly of AZ 3:47PM July 26, 2010

I am currently attending a large Big Ten university part-time as a working adult, and they are spending money like there is no tomorrow. While they were patting themselves on the back for not raising tuition for 3 years in a row, they raised every other fee that they could. In fact, they added an additional fee that students have no choice but to pay. My tuition bills have SEVEN line items. One of them is tuition, the rest is assorted fees and mandatory dues to facilities I can not even use. I have been given the wonderful opportunity by my employer to take part-time classes during the day (because this school is too self-important to help out non-traditional students) so my time there on campus is extremely limited. Several years ago this university completed a $140 million dollar fitness and activity center. In order to finance this, they make EVERY ONE of their 52,000+ students pay a MANDATORY $82 quarterly fee. In addition to this, they also completed a major overhaul of their student union. That $100+ million dollar project also adds another $86 to my quarterly bill. Both of these fees I have to pay, even though I don't have the ability to use these facilities. It seems to me that this university doesn't really care about how affordable their education is, but only how many buildings they can erect and make the student body pay for. What is even more ironic is that they are throwing money at these projects while some buildings on campus haven't even been updated in the 60 years since they have been built.
The moral behind my rant is that while a public college is crying boo-hoo for their budgets, trying desperately to raise tuition as high as they can, they are not practicing any fiscal conservatism to prevent these budget shortfalls. I would liken the public universities to proto-governments that only spend,spend,spend and indiscriminantly increase every other fee they can.

wvchilling of OH 5:33AM July 23, 2010

I live in Arkansas. I have a doctorate and a masters. My eldest goes to public university in Missouri: she is a junior and has no debt. I expect my youngest to go to UA-Fayetteville and have no debt on graduation either. (Go Razorbacks!) I kinda figure that folks who pay big bucks for private colleges have no concept of compound interest. And btw, I hold no brief for professors, liberal or otherwise, even though my Mom is a university professor. There ain't NO way that college should cost what it does on the coasts.

Shirin of AR 10:43PM July 21, 2010

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PROSPER HAMULI of AK 10:48AM July 19, 2010

Ruby Tuesday - I second that sentiment!

Lou of CO 1:09AM July 15, 2010

The brilliant person who made the crackpot comment about liberal professors and their cushy jobs most likely never saw the inside of a college classroom.

Ruby Tuesday of NV 5:57PM July 14, 2010