Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Rising Tuition
The Dallas Morning News reports that UT-Austin plans to raise tuition by up to 22% over the next two years. If they are going to raise tuition that much they should at least raise their educational standards by the same amount. By raising their standards, the high schools will then have to raise their standards, so college-bound students will be able to get in, meaning middle and then elementary schools will have to raise theirs. The low standards we see in our universities, brought about by the anti-values and anti-standards of postmodernism, is what caused our high, middle, and elementary schools to become among the worst in the developed world. But if UT does not intend to raise its educational standards, then how can they justify raising costs? How is it that in education, as costs have gone up, the value of the education has gone down?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Underlying your statement is the tacit assumption that the value of the U.S. dollar is constant. I don't know whether you've noticed, but our dollar has been dropping like a stone. This might not matter if America were still self-sufficient, but we import most of our manufactured goods and most of our petroleum.
Energy costs have increased sharply. So it costs universities more just to keep the doors open. Somebody's got to pay that extra cost, either taxpayers or students.
The basic cause of all this, of course, is that since 1971 we've have a fiat currency that owes its value solely to the Tinkerbell Effect.
You may not have noticed in my postings, but I never make the assumption that anything is constant or unchanging.
That having been said, if the dollar becomes devalued by 22% over the next 2 years, we are in some really serious trouble. My point in the posting had more to do with the terrible state our educational system is in.
Well, you asked, "But if UT does not intend to raise its educational standards, then how can they justify raising costs?"
The answer is that UT is raising tuition to compensate for the devaluation of the dollar, and consequent increase in operating costs, that preceded the tuition increase. If people decide that UT doesn't provide sufficient value for the money, then they have the options of going elsewhere or doing without a university education.
And we are in serious trouble.
Fair enough. I am still of the opinion that they have a hard time justifying raising tuition by that much without a subsequent rise in standards. And educational standards is my bigger concern here. Sadly, there's no place else to go, because no other university is providing any better education.
I do happen to agree with you that we do seem to be heading toward trouble money-wise. But we are also headed in the same direction for the reason of education.
Post a Comment