Why Public Higher

Education Should be Free

Robert Samuels
Katie Cochran
Laurie Kay

Ch. 1- Why Tuition Goes Up and Quality Goes

Down at American Research Institutions

The average cost of higher education increases at twice the rate of

inflation.

Cost of tuition doubles every nine years.

As it takes more to run an institution, universities are relying more on

less costly untenured faculty and larger class sizes.

This is causing tuition to rise and quality to decrease across the nation.

WHY is tuition doubling every 9

years, on average?

Since 1980, states have cut more and more funding to the public
universities in their states. Cutting funding from the state level has
caused universities to fund on their own much more than previous to
1980.

WHAT does this mean?

As costs continue to rise, we will see more and more auditorium styled
classrooms at universities. The professors will become more and more
likely to not be tenured.

As the quality continues to be altered, colleges are focusing on the

aesthetic aspect of their facilities to compensate.

More money today is going towards university centers, food courts,

sports, libraries and student lounges.

WHAT does this mean? Continued..

Rankings, rankings rankings!

As magazines, articles, and higher education companies continue to

rank universities on aesthetical components, universities are feeling
more and more pressure from incoming students, current students,
parents and families to have the greatest aspects to the college such as
the room and board, once again, increasing the tuition and fees to
supply this.

Parents and students expect world class living facilities, universities feel
the pressure to supply this.

What does increased tuition lead to?

Increased tuition leads to lower graduation rates due to students

working to supplement the cost of tuition.

The graduation rate in 2002, six year rate, at four year universities was
only 54%.

Enrollment in universities directly out of high school has dropped, and

the students that arent going to universities are attending the
community colleges more often, now causing community colleges to
also raise their tuition and fees in order to supply what is being sought
out.

Chapter 2- Where Money Goes in

Research Institutions

Page 15 of the text states that universities are actually bringing in more
money now, but putting less of their revenue towards the classroom.

Instead, money is going towards student services, administration, and

maintenance of the appearance of the university.

Studies show that direct expenses for instruction represent less than a
quarter of the total spending by public universities.

Using graduate students to teach

Many times in research institutions, graduate students are used to teach

courses.

By using the graduate students, they are reducing the amount of tuition
that the graduate student teacher pays for their classes.

The cost to educate a graduate student, according to the text, costs four
times the amount of the cost to educate an undergraduate student. This
leads to taking more to fund those graduate students that are teaching
the undergraduate courses.

Looking inside the pay raise system

Categories for pay scales: administration and staff, athletic coaches, business
school professors, medical faculty, law professors, academic professors.

At the University of California in 2008, over $1 billion out of a $9 billion

payroll went to these 6 categories.

Administration and staff: over $200,000.

Medical Faculty: 2,296 people in this field made a collective $680 million.

Academic professors made a collective $96.6 millions.

Business school faculty, more than 350 of these faculty were makings over
$200,000 a piece.

Law professors collectively gained $21 millions.

Athletic coaches collectively gained $12.8 million.

What the pay raise system means

The operating budget for the University of California in 2008 was $19
million, and half of this went to compensation.

While they are receiving raises, the undergraduate students are

receiving less in the classroom overall.

As the universities continue to change alongside their budget, the text

notes how important it is for the students and faculty of a university to
examine the amount of money being spent by the university, compared
to how much they are taking in.

Ch. 3- Shortchanging Instruction at Research

Universities, and Why Students Dont Complain

Budget cuts, instruction money cuts, the use of graduate students

teaching, the use of TAs in oversized classrooms, and less class
offerings have some wondering why students dont stand up and
complain about the manner in which they are being taught.

Case studies

At UC Riverside, enrollment has grown by 3,000 students, yet faculty

has been decreased by 5 percent. This results in a 33 percent class
growth. Introductory physics that used to have 95 students now has, on
average, 573 students.

At UC Santa Crus, 84 fewer course offerings are being offered, yet class
sizes have increased by 33%.

At UC Santa Barbara, staff has declined by 11 percent, yet student

numbers have increased by 1,000 over the course of 3 years.

What this causes

Problems such as those listed in the case studies have increased the
numbers of online course offerings, less personal attention from
professors toward the students, and less student motivation.

As students become bored in class due to the impersonal nature that

has been created, thats whats playing a role in lower participation
rates inside and outside the classroom, lower four year graduation rates.

What students want

Surveys performed by students shows that students feel that colleges

are relying more on test scores than previous years.

The more tuition prices are raised, the more students feel that they are
only in college to receive high paying jobs upon graduation, as opposed
to just receiving an education.

Study time has been reduced, yet test grades have been raised. Many
surveys are also finding that students are spending less time preparing
for classes, exams, and overall study time, and thats one of the largest
reasons that the students at these institutions arent complaining.

Ch. 4- The Role of the Faculty and Graduate

Students in Changing Universities

In 2010, research universities produced 100,000 new doctoral degrees,

but only 16,000 job openings for professors.

While not all doctoral graduates want to teach, this has been a trend
throughout American history that many times, those with their PhDs
would like to teach in their field. Instead of hiring the students
graduating, the same issues arises that they are filling these positions
with graduate students.

What problems this is creating

PhD recipients are spending more time on the job market, becoming less
and less hirable as times goes on, when in actuality, they are leaving
the institutions prepared to teach.

With many of the new professors at institutions not being tenured, the
colleges and universities are able to pay less, with less qualified
professors teaching.

In this system, there are tends to be much more faculty doing what they
can to secure jobs outside of the university system, putting the
university system in more of a hole than previous years.

As this continues, there seems to be a larger amount of discourse in the

university system across the nation.

Whats going on in public

universities?

With the lower paid instructors, there are also some of tenure track,
tenured, or non tenure track professors.

The teachers ineligible for tenure also have very small amounts of
academic freedom.

These teachers are being judged by students on their evaluations,

sometimes causing them to feel like they should inflate grades to make
the students happier, as well as teaching in a more free, yet defensive,
manner.

Chapter 4 summarized

With the issues mentioned in the previous slide, many assume that the
higher money being put out in payroll is the reason for the higher
amounts of tuition, but according to the text, what has really become a
motivating factor is the fact that the university is having to rely on so
many outside factors.

The text shows how if public universities and the classes offered there
are publically, fully funded, while the cost is high on the front end, the
results it creates are much higher than the cost upfront.

The academic labor system has hurt the overall morale and attitude
from the faculty to the top of the university, ultimately hurting students
the worst in the end result.

Ch. 5- The Rise of the Administrative

Class

As schools increase enrollment, they decrease the number of faculty,

but increase the number of the administrators.

According to the chapter, many of these administrators dont even have

a connection to the educational mission, but they increase the payroll
costs, while ultimately being a thriving role in the lowering of the
educational quality at their institutions.

Growth by Committee

As administration departments continue to increase, professors are

losing their power to these administration positions.

At some universities, professors dont even advise the students

anymore, as departments have been created for this.

Most of the tasks that used to be performed by professors outside the

classroom are now performed by these administrative committees.

Growth of the universities

As universities continue to grow, they are also taking more on than ever
before, by fully funding medical centers, research laboratories, venture
capital enterprises, and community service centers.

As this continues to be the trend, we see less interaction with the

everyday students on the campus. The administration, in many cases,
has become out of touch with the regular students.

Administrators are spending more time fundraising and less time

communicating with the students and staff on the campus.

Secret deals for the administrative

class

The following statistics come from a 2006 audit of how universities

misspent money on their administrators, while quality was going down
and tuition was going up.

39 People at an institution received extra vacation

13 Housing related payments that violated policies.

6 sabbaticals that didnt qualify for them.

11 stipends that were not approved.

11 cases of extra severance pay promised.

So, whats really going on?

Chapter 5 discussed the idea that the administrative group in higher

education is essentially hurting the overall financial situation at public
higher education institutions across the nation.

They received extra benefits according to multiple studies, and often

times the benefits werent approved or wouldnt have been approved.

What this means is that this group of workers are taking away from the
classrooms, the non-tenured faculty, and worst of all, the students.

Chapter 6:
The University as Hedge Fund

Although most people dont realize it, universities are involved in the
world of investments and are affected by the stock markets rising and
falling.

Private universities use investments to supplement their spending.

This system works welluntil the investments falter and money is lost.

The 2009 worldwide stock market struggles adversely impacted many

universities, who lost billions of dollars.

The bigger they are,

the harder they fall?

The nations wealthiest universities claimed to be the hardest-hit by the

global financial meltdown.

Universities responded by raising class sizes, limiting new faculty hiring,

and restructuring academic programs.

Even though they had just lost a lot of money, universities continued to
offer large compensation packages to those who were responsible for
the lost investments.

During financial downturns, schools often reduce their need-based aid

while maintaining merit-based aid, so students with less income have
less of a chance of attending these elite schools.

A bad return on investments can hurt the schools educational mission.

Is it a bank or a college?

Many universities have turned their priorities toward investments,

rather than education and research.

This can lead to making academic decisions to impress bond rating

firms, rather than to serve students.

These decisions can include those related to research.

Chapter 7:
The High Cost of Research

Research conducted at universities has led to many important

developments, including the Internet, cell phones, and vaccines.

Although research is important, sometimes it undermines universities

educational goals and missions.

Research can result in a conflict of interest at educational institutions.

Research vs. Teaching

Some professors who are involved in research see teaching as a burden.

Universities that prioritize research over teaching may turn teaching

duties over to adjunct faculty, untenured faculty, or graduate assistants
to give professors more time to conduct research.

These universities also show their partiality to research by basing

tenure, promotions, and merit pay increases on research, rather than
classroom performance and teacher effectiveness.

This sends a message to students that their education is not as

important as research.

Professors at these institutions where research is favored over education

come to believe that they will only be rewarded if they bring money and
prestige to their university through doing research.

During times of cutbacks in state funding, universities think the only

way they can survive reductions in funding is to bring in more money
through research and other revenue-generating activities.

This mindset gives professors no incentive to become good teachers or

to care about becoming part of a shared educational community. It
creates a divide between professors focused on research and those
focused on teaching.

Corruption in research

Grant funds can be misdirected and are sometimes not used to

compensate the universitys general fund, which is paying for staff,
administration, building maintenance, labs, electricity, and other
necessities that benefit the researcher.

Preference seems to be given to the sciences over the humanities in

research because the sciences bring in more grant money, but there is
little accountability in reporting how much money the researchers take
in and how much they spend, so it is unknown whether the research is
profitable.

Sometimes research findings are skewed or suppressed in order to

support the mission of the corporation funding the research. (Research
paid for by the tobacco industry is not likely to shed any negative light
on tobacco use.)

Whats the answer?

Research should be defended as an investigation of truth, but the

research mission should not undermine teaching and learning.

Research and teaching should be valued equally and their missions

should not conflict with each other.

Educational quality in the classroom should not be sacrificed to benefit

research.

There should be more accountability in how research funds are used.

There should be equal support for teachers who focus on teaching and
teachers who focus on research.

Quality classroom instruction should be a top priority.

Chapter 8:
Technology to the Rescue?

There is no question that technology is changing the world of education.

How should these changes occur?

Universities are pressured to adapt to and begin offering any new

technology that becomes available.

Stakeholders rarely question why universities spend so much and get so

little in return for their investments in technology.

Is the latest always the greatest?

Todays students want to do many things at the same time (study, text,
listen to music, Snapchat, surf the Internet). Is that really good for
them?

Todays competitive school environments have taught students that they

will be rewarded for grades, not for learning.

When conducting research for a school paper or project, students often

first turn to Google or Wikipedia.
Are all of the advancements that we have seen in technology helping, or
hindering, students in teaching them how to think?

Hidden Costs

There are many hidden costs in offering online courses, including the extensive
labor involved in developing the course and overhead costs.

These expenses are rarely presented in the proposals for developing the courses.

Online courses place a financial burden on instructional budgets because of their

high administrative costs.

New technologies can draw money away from a universitys instructional mission
in direct and indirect ways.

In addition to purchasing the technology equipment, there are other associated

costs such as providing staff, administrators, electricity, equipment, software
licenses, and training.

So why is online instruction often seen as the answer to the rising costs of higher
education?

What is the motivation behind

offering online education?

Online courses can theoretically reach a wider audience of students, but

they are limited to those who have the resources and technology to
access them.

Corporations convince universities to offer online courses as a means of

making money.

These same corporations are, in turn, making a lot of money selling the
software and equipment to the universities.

To save money, universities are already offering larger, non-interactive

lecture classes in person, so posting these lectures online is the next
logical step in making education less personal and interactive.

Chapter 9:
Making All Higher Education Free

Success Story: Finland

Finland went from having only a small percentage of students complete

high school in the 1960s with mediocre test scores, to having one of the
highest percentage of high school graduates in the world, with among
the highest math and reading scores, 40 years later.

This transformation came about when:

1. All education became public and free.

2. Teachers became well compensated and highly trained.

3. Education became interactive and experience-based.

4. Students received individual attention at an early age.

5. In high school, students were given the choice between a vocational or

academic track.

These reforms could be applied to higher education in America with

great success.

The True Cost of Free Education

The first step in implementing these reforms would be to make higher

education free for all students. Is this feasible? According to
Samuels, free education would cost about the same as the tuition-based
system we now have in place!

According to Samuels, it would cost $128 billion to make all public

universities free in the U.S.

The federal government is now spending $35 million on Pell grants and
$104 billion on student loans each year.

In addition, the government offers tax breaks and deductions for tuition,
which would stop if education were free.

The Untold Story

According to Samuels, tuition prices are inflated because schools

increase their sticker price to subsidize institutional financial aid for
lower-income students and to provide merit aid for wealthy, high-scoring
students.

The current tax code favors upper-middle-class and wealthy families,

leaving lower-income students to take on huge debt burdens in order to
finance their college education.

Much of the federal financial support for higher education ends up going
to fund private institutions.

If we made public higher education free, we could do away with this

unjust tax system and stop subsidizing private and for-profit universities
with public funds.

Why make higher education free?

To have an effective democracy.

It is safer to have the whole people respectably enlightened than a few

in a high state of science and the many in ignorance. ~Thomas
Jefferson.

According to Jefferson, higher education has a much higher purpose

than preparing students for the workforce. It develops youths minds,
cultivates their morals, instills in them the precepts of virtue and order,
enlightens them through science and the arts and humanities, gives
them higher reasoning skills, and enables them to become examples to
others and happier themselves.

More reasons for free education:

The current system has increased wealth inequality by motivating

colleges to accept students who can either pay the full tuition bill or who
have high ACT/SAT scores. This reduces the number of low-income and
minority students and creates a wider divide between the classes.

Unequal education attainment leads to income inequality, which affects

ALL people, because it leads to higher crime and poorer health.

The more public education becomes privatized, the more it becomes

unequal, and the more society suffers as a whole.

The biggest reason that students drop out of school is because they
cannot afford to continue.

Chapter 10: Educating Students for a

Multicultural Democracy

We need to make choices that will contribute to us becoming a

multicultural democracy in a globalized economy.

It begins with treating teachers with respect:

We need to give teachers the tools and respect they need to be effective.

This includes recognizing that standardized tests affect what students learn
and how teachers teach.

When teachers must teach to the test, they must teach in a rote fashion that
disregards their passion for teaching and limits their ability to reach and
nurture the whole student.

Teachers need the freedom to teach to their strengths.

How can we improve education?

We must rethink the way that educators are evaluated.

Standardized tests are not the truest indicator of a teachers skill.

We need to develop a culture of teaching that is connected to a concern

for student learning.

In a culture of educational competition, everyone loses.

Students must be taught, not only rote facts, but how to develop
empathetic understanding through studying the humanities.

Developing both sides of the brain

Most professors teach as if students only have half a brain, since

standardized tests and multiple-choice answers favor the left side of the
brain.

The left side of the brain focuses on lifeless facts from an impersonal
perspective, while the right side relates to the emotional side of living.

When students only work the left side of their brain, they cannot make
decisions or moral judgments and do not develop their intuition,
emotion, or unconscious beliefs.

We need to reverse the trend of eliminating literature, play, and

imagination from education, because these elements increase our ability
to think about the world as others experience it.

Other Needed Reforms:

Teaching Teachers How to Teach

In higher education, professors are hired based on their expertise of

their subject area, and not on their competency in teaching.

Most professors never actually study how to teach.

The use of cognitive science in higher education could shape and

enhance how professors teach and how students learn.

High-quality instruction should be a top priority.

Conclusion

There are many aspects of higher education that are unknown to the public,
including the mysteries of funding formulas, why tuition keeps rising as educational
quality keeps falling, and how universities are shortchanging studentsand the
publicby using public funds to subsidize research that serves largely to benefit the
corporations that fund them. Students pay for quality education, but are taught by
graduate assistants or other untrained teachers, while the expert professors are
busy in the research lab. Yet the students dont complain, because the university is
spending their money building glitzy dorms, student centers, sports stadiums, and
other amenities.

By making higher education funding more transparent, increasing accountability,

offering a free public education to all who desire it, and giving teachers the training
and tools they need in order to become effective educators, we can help students
become well-rounded persons who are capable of abstract thought, higher
reasoning skills, and empathy toward others, and our nation can become a true
intercultural democracy.