by Tina Grazier
I was musing about profits and shaking my head over those who believe that healthcare providers should be “non profit” and it occurred to me, should the same thinking be applied to higher education?
Think about it! Our nation will become a backward, barbarian, third world disaster if we fail to provide our posterity with affordable quality higher education. You could even say citizens have a “right” to a first class education…right? Shouldn’t educators, therefore, be required to be non-profit? Let’s see…if we regulate their pay and benefits with caps, regulate their housing, vacation, auto, and entertainment allotments, and if we force them to spend more time in the classroom….
These thoughts were rattling around when I ran across this article out of Ohio:
COLUMBUS — E. Gordon Gee makes millions as president of Ohio State University, but a Dayton Daily News investigation found the university spends almost as much for Gee to travel the globe, throw parties, wine and dine donors, woo prospective faculty, hang out with students and staff and maintain a 9,600-square-foot mansion on 1.3 acres.
Since returning to Columbus as the university’s president in October 2007, the 68-year-old Gee has pulled in $8.6 million in salary and compensation, making him the highest paid CEO of a public university in the country.
But his expenses — hidden among hard-to-get records that the university took nearly a year to release — tally nearly as much: $7.7 million.
If this administrator has been rewarded with over the top compensation you can bet that the rest of the staff is living high on the hog as well. It occurs to me that it is these so-called educators, and administrators of education who are the greedy bloodsuckers in our society.
They live like movie stars and CEO’s of multi-billion dollar companies without feedback or criticism. They preside over lavish empires subsidized by public tax money and confiscatory tuition. And the ugly truth is that they are grossly irresponsible regarding the value and cost of their product.
College educations are too expensive. High priced administrators are not delivering an affordable product. Not surprisingly these educators support the political party that wrongly informs students! They believe healthcare can be sustained as a non-profit, state sponsored entity. They believe that credit card spending is the best way to save economies and create jobs. They believe that higher education should be free for everyone…oh wait…no…ummmm….hmmm. That’s not quite…
Colleges are managed in such a way that students must incur massive debt or spend a long, long time getting a degree! Colleges operate in such a way that poor kids must rely on pell grants AND work part time to afford an education. They operate so that some students pay a very high price for a degree which does not prepare them for the workplace and is therefore useless especially considering the cost. They operate so that students who don’t qualify for grants are often locked out of the college experience due to the high price of the product.
There is something deeply disturbing in this picture! State schools were conceived so as to give middle and poor class students access to higher education. They were designed to give middle and poor class students’ the opportunity to move up in society and realize their dreams. Instead these institutions have lost their way and become havens for elite pseudo educators on holiday. They are little more than clubs with executives (administrators and professors) living high the high life and telling students they can pay up or get bent. This is not surprising…this greedy bunch was created and is sustained by liberal progressive thinkers…and we the people have allowed them to get away with it for much too long.
A state college is not Apple or Microsoft. It is also not Oprah. Microsoft is successful and makes a lot of money because their products are valuable, their prices are reasonable, people are offered choices, and product improvements are regularly forthcoming. Oprah is profitable because she offers entertainment and personal value to her viewers at a reasonable price to her sponsors and advertisers. These enterprises would go out of business if they followed the state school model.
Profit is not a dirty word. In fact there may be ways for state college educators to make big bucks. There may be a way to make college affordable and pay administrators and professors big bucks…but the opulent living and high priced product should not be dumped on the backs of taxpayers and students…and it definitely should not be at the expense of the students’ futures. If states are going to justify this huge expense for professors and administrators they will need to find ways to supplement state college coffers.
College is expensive because greedy, irresponsible presidents and elites educators of the system are self-serving and doing a terrible job of managing budgets and delivering a quality, affordable product!
Well, it’s not, really. It’s just, in the old days, before Prop 13, the bulk of CSU expenses were met by property taxes. Tuition at CSU, San Francisco, in 1974 was $104 (the $4 for the Student Activity Fee) per semester, plus books.
But the idiot citizens fixed that, yes they did.
Except for one thing. The year prop 13 was passed the property taxes were going up so fast (due to Jimma Carters inflationary economy) that they were exceeding house payments. A lot of homeowners were looking at tax payments they couldn’t afford…some had to sell their homes. How good would it be for California’s coffers if a bunch of real estate suddenly was abandoned because people couldn’t keep up with taxes?
I swear! You progressives are thoughtless, cold-hearted criminals!
Our readers might enjoy this article from CATO:
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/proposition-13-then-now-forever
Good citizens wouldn’t have to endure these boom and bust cycles if legislators weren’t so bent on controlling everything and confiscating our property (money). It would also help if they remembered they have a fiduciary responsibility to account for every dime of public money and to manage it well and to good purpose. Most departments don’t even balance the books, People who work in government are too entitled…the public servant is rare.
It’s so easy to spend other people’s money.
Chico State has something like 88 administrators making over $100K. I’m not talking about professors, these are just overhead, and contribute nothing to the students education. While Zing has cut back on instructors, not one administrative position has been cut.
Jim you are absolutely right.
The students are not being served. The product is overpriced and part of the problem is too many administrators.
I do think these administrators and some professors have also gradually gotten used to living a champagne lifestyle and expect the public and the students to accommodate their expensive tastes. Automatic raises and generous perks are expected without their having contributed value…without their having earned it.
“Except for one thing. The year prop 13 was passed the property taxes were going up so fast (due to Jimma Carters inflationary economy) that they were exceeding house payments. A lot of homeowners were looking at tax payments they couldn’t afford…some had to sell their homes.”
So you (or rather, your legislature) alters the way taxes are calculated. But if idiot citizens are suckered into savaging the actual rate, your civilization goes down the tubes.
Libby: ” But if idiot citizens are suckered into savaging the actual rate…”
This is how you progressives fraudulently win the argument with people that don’t bother to dig into details.
Rates were not “SAVAGED” under Prop 13!!!!!!!!
THE PEOPLE put a restraint on overly zealous lawmakers dampening their greedy efforts. By narrowing the easy, wide open path to making deals with education administrators and teachers union bosses property rights were upheld!
The people have to have a reasonable assumption that when they sign a contract to buy a house taxes will not go up so quickly or to such a degree that it will put them out of their home. This law protects the people and their property by limiting the amount rates can be raised. It is limited to 2% per year:
http://www.boe.ca.gov/proptaxes/faqs/caproptaxprop.htm
Note that bonds passed by the people (like a special local school bond) is added to the assessed tax under prop 13. Libby, your argument is CRAP.
(There are exceptions and conditions that also apply to property tax under other propositions. You can read about them at the link above).
“Libby, your argument is CRAP.”
Alas, you’ll have to come up with more than that to refute it. If 1% isn’t “savaged”, I’d like to know what would be.
Apparently, Libby, you can read and understand slang. How about the rest of the words?