These past few years have been tough for California State University and University of California students and their families. Today the CSU Board of Trustees raised fees again, but that’s expected because of the Compact between the governor, UC Presi…

Frances,
My financial situation isn’t so bad. My department actually did increase my funding after they found out I didn’t have an official research assistantship. My elected position comes with a nice stipend which would be equal to working about 10 hrs a week at the same rate I’d get as a research assistant.

Brenda,
Ouch. 20K for two years is horrible, but you got in when fees started going up.

HP,
That article you linked to says nothing about the UC opposing the credit thing. As usual, most of what you write is a whole lotta BS.

1. Government subsidization of schools decreases competition among universities, and like anything else, when a sector of the economy has less competition prices go up. In addition, universities usually redirect the money to programs that benefit high-income students – or that benefit no students at all. A much better way to help the poor go to college is to replace overall university subsidization with a progressive voucher system, in other words, a system where the government gives tax breaks and income directly to poor families that are sending their kids to universities, giving more money the poorer the family is. So instead of university subsidization, we should have poor family subsidization. That way we can guarantee that the subsidization goes to those it is supposed to benefit, the poor, and this also has the benefit of increasing competition among universities, forcing them to compete at a more equal footing with other new and for profit universities, and forcing them to compete for the new pool of poor students that would be created with the progressive voucher system.

2. Government backed student loans artificially increase the number of students going to universities, which increases demand, which again, increases the cost of education.

3. Traditional universities refusal to create, or work towards, a system that allows for the easy flow of class credits among universities. This helps to increase the universities monopoly, and helps to significantly stifle competition, two things that help increase prices. In fact, the University of California has been one of the most vocal opponents.

4. All of the recent add-ons of the modern day university have significantly increased prices, examples of those are given by economist Arnold Kling, he writes,

Food. I can remember when the Swarthmore cafeteria only offered one choice at dinner, such as liver and onions, or veal cutlet (known as “vile cutlet”). If you did not like that, you got a slice of bread and smeared on some industrial peanut butter from a large vat. Nowadays, students get the types of food choices that one sees in suburban mall food courts.

Facilities. Fitness centers resemble expensive health clubs. The University of Maryland’s performing arts center is as luxurious as the Kennedy Center. Swarthmore has a magnificent auditorium that seats several hundred — and is almost always empty at a college that prides itself on small classes.

Ethnic solidarity. Postrel argues that consumers use aesthetics to express their identity. Her bumper-sticker phrase that describes the identity-driven motive for consumption is, “I like that. I’m like that.” This is very evident on college campuses, where there are special buildings for the African-American student union, for Jewish students, and for other segments. Ethnic-group clubs are the most thriving student organizations on campus. One of my academic friends wryly notes that “there is a dean for all three genders, for each ethnic group, and for every intersecting combination.” Entire academic departments, such as Black Studies or Women’s Studies, have emerged to serve no purpose other than “I like that. I’m like that.”

Professional sports. The University of Maryland cannot provide housing for all of the students who would like to live on campus. However, it was able to afford a new stadium and a new arena for its football and basketball teams.

Urban settings. Students want access to clubs, restaurants, and a variety of entertainment. New York University and Boston University are brimming with applicants, while small midwestern colleges are finding themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Remember that 1993 hunger strike that UCLA students did to get a ‘Chicano Studies’ department? Well, I hope they don’t think that that came at no trade-off, higher educational costs being the primary one.

With all of that said, I still don’t think that one can assume that educational costs are just going to keep going up and up. Even with all of the above, there are still some recent developments that have a large potential in significantly reducing education costs, for example, in the above article, Kling discusses having less location specific courses and instead have a single lecturer broadcast to students all across the country. For example, my company currently pays for masters in electrical engineering from USC and Stanford University, both of which broadcast their lectures to companies around the world. So in the end, we could get our masters from these universities without ever stepping on campus.

But what has the most potential for decreasing education costs, IMO, is outsourcing. Kling touches on this when he writes, “Rather than rely on an internally-selected faculty, a college might turn to a specialized supplier. That supplier might provide instructional videos and software in addition to live professors. Rather than enjoy the privilege of institutional tenure, professors might sell their lecture time through agencies that book popular speakers”.

But in the end, politicians like Fabian Nuñez and others are going to address the problem at the university level, not the poor family level, thereby making the costs of education more expensive in the long run, not less expensive. Let’s hope the markets are quicker than the politicians, so that, as they have in the past, they will help us overcome the bad decisions of our politicians in Washington and Sacramento.