The Antiplanner

Student Protests

12th March 2010

Student Protests

posted in News commentary |

The Antiplanner has long observed that everyone can justify the subsidies they get from the government. So it is no surprise that university students across the nation are protesting increases in tuition. Even though the students themselves are the ones who primarily benefit from their educations, some of them have the nerve to call tuition growth “tax hikes.”

To be fair, when the Antiplanner entered college, my tuition was just over $400 a year, which (after adjusting for inflation) is about $2,000 in today’s money. Today, in-state tuition at Oregon State University, my alma mater, is about three times that amount. Still, that’s just a third of out-of-state tuition, suggesting that in-state students pay only a third of the cost of their educations.

But I have to wonder if the students who are protesting tuition hikes have given any thought to the trade-offs involved in government spending. CalPIRG, which promoted the California student protests, also supported the November high-speed rail vote. That vote added billions of dollars to the state’s annual obligations without providing any source of funds to pay those expenses. Since California already had a multi-billion-dollar deficit, increasing spending on rail would have to mean decreased spending on things like higher education.

Maybe this will provide students with an important lesson: Resources are limited or, to put it another way, reality bites.

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There are currently 13 responses to “Student Protests”

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  1. 1 On March 12th, 2010, blacquejacqueshellac said:

    Yngvi is a louse and the AP is a shill.

    OK, now that’s out of the way, I can add a little iota as an actual developer and builder. If a customer approached me with a request that I build facilities in the most stupid, inelegant, wasteful and expensive manner possible, not to mention ugly and Stalinist, I could not possibly equal the modern university.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 7:25 am

  2. 2 On March 12th, 2010, stevenplunk said:

    For years the cost of college has outpaced inflation yet no reasonable explanation has been given by the education establishment. That ability to be unaccountable only adds to the rising costs.

    Recently my alma mater SOU submitted a new master plan to the city of Ashland that included faculty housing as a major component. It seems they are following the usual path of becoming more interested in their own well being than caring about those they should be serving, the students.

    I noticed the University of Oregon stopped funding it’s PIRG after finding out student money was mostly going off campus for administrative costs. Bravo. PIRGs are self interested groups who basically steal money from unknowing college kids and their parents.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 7:40 am

  3. 3 On March 12th, 2010, Scott said:

    People don’t understand that when revenues fall, cuts should be made.

    Many still claim, “More for me. More for them. Tax others.”

    BO is even taking away banks ability to loan to students, & have them only available by the gov. The plan is to make more people dependent on gov, as are are most of his ideas, which are so destructive to the US.

    It is strange why education & medical expenses have been going up faster than the CIU. Even for primary & secondary ed, the real cost per student has at least doubled since the 60s, & student performance is down.

    Gov regs & bureaucracy are probably big causes.
    However, private universities & medical costs in other countries, don’t follow that cause.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 8:21 am

  4. 4 On March 12th, 2010, C. P. Zilliacus said:

    The Antiplanner wrote:

    > The Antiplanner has long observed that everyone can justify
    > the subsidies they get from the government. So it is no surprise
    > that university students across the nation are protesting
    > increases in tuition. Even though the students themselves
    > are the ones who primarily benefit from their educations,
    > some of them have the nerve to call tuition growth “tax hikes.”

    I do not think of tuition increases as tax increases. My college education at the University of Maryland at College Park came some years (I think) after yours. I recall paying between $400 and $500 a semester for in-state tuition, perhaps because Maryland’s taxpayers were not quite as generous as those in Oregon.

    The PIRGs do not in any way represent anyone, except the people that participate in them. That was true (and is) true of MaryPIRG, which has long supported rail transit and opposed highways.

    I do not remember if, back in the 1970′s when I was a student there, MaryPIRG opposed the construction of the WMATA Green Line through the middle of the College Park campus or sided with citizen activists who supported the ridiculous alignment that was eventually built, putting the Metro station far beyond walking distance from the middle of the campus.

    Curiously, with (or without) rail transit, the campus has massive parking lots around most of its perimeter (even though the University of Maryland does not allow its resident freshmen and sophomores to have motor vehicles on campus).

    The Antiplanner also wrote:

    > Since California already had a multi-billion-dollar deficit,
    > increasing spending on rail would have to mean decreased
    > spending on things like higher education.

    Your above point is spot-on correct. From the perspective of society, more people with college educations has got to be a better deal than an assortment of lightly-used light, heavy and high-speed rail lines.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 10:08 am

  5. 5 On March 12th, 2010, Frank said:

    I think the Antiplanner dropped the ball on this article.

    The reality behind tuition hikes is not that resources are limited; it’s exactly the opposite. Tuition hikes are a direct result of government aid programs, especially student loans which cause inflation in higher education, which results in price increases. Universities know that government will step in and provide credit, and universities are in bed with lenders.

    See Peter Schiff’s explanation.

    Total student loan debt is rapidly approaching a trillion dollars. The student loan effect is the next bubble.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 10:11 am

  6. 6 On March 12th, 2010, C. P. Zilliacus said:

    blacquejacqueshellac wrote:

    > OK, now that’s out of the way, I can add a little iota as an
    > actual developer and builder. If a customer approached me
    > with a request that I build facilities in the most stupid,
    > inelegant, wasteful and expensive manner possible, not to
    > mention ugly and Stalinist, I could not possibly equal the
    > modern university.

    Though I must say that the University of Virginia’s Charlottesville campus, which was designed by an architect named Tom Jefferson, has turned out pretty nice, and has even stood the test of time.

    The University of Maryland at College Park, while not as old as UVa’s campus, was designed to resemble (in some ways) Jefferson’s creation.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 10:20 am

  7. 7 On March 12th, 2010, Scott said:

    The brutalist style rocks, & is way cool; yes it is cold.
    True for any modernity, almost anything new, since 1920.

    Old crap (tudor, gothic, colonial, etc.) style is like mold.

    Of course that’s my opinion & even more people have the reverse tastes.

    The point is that style is individualistic, & it can be improper to denounce some.

    The architectural style doesn’t matter much for the purpose.
    The architectural layout can.

    Politicians usually pick architects to increase pork.
    See San Jose City Hall, & Illinois Thompson Center, among many others.

    posted on March 12th, 2010 at 7:23 pm

  8. 8 On March 13th, 2010, Borealis said:

    College tuition is a great case study for economics. Federal and state governments heavily subsidize it to make it more affordable, and the noble colleges steeply raise tuition beyond inflation to capture as much of it as they can.

    Even more interesting is that most students must reveal all their financial information, and their parents’ financial information, before the college tells them how much they will be charged. It puts colleges in the most powerful position to extract as much money from the students as possible. Moreover, no other business gets to burden parents with the financial obligations of people over the age of 18.

    posted on March 13th, 2010 at 5:10 am

  9. 9 On March 14th, 2010, bennett said:

    “Moreover, no other business gets to burden parents with the financial obligations of people over the age of 18.”

    This made me wonder… If an 18 year old runs up $10k worth of credit card debt and then dies, do the parents get a call from Visa collections? My parents did not pay for my college, nor did I have to take out college loans (law suit settlement), so my experience was significantly different. To be burdened with this debt, do the parents have to enter into a contract, or are they just co-signers by default?

    posted on March 14th, 2010 at 9:58 am

  10. 10 On March 14th, 2010, Dan said:

    My last contract law class was in…hmmm…1982 or so. But IIRC the purpose of co-signing is to add contractual force to co-signers. Surely the prolix lawyer on this board will straighten us all out.

    Nonetheless, speaking of student loan subsidy, it may be a little less moot since the troglodytes in TX are screwing up textbooks agin’. Surely we can get Scaife to stop subsidizing wingnut welfare to cut off these people and return Enlightenment principles to TX. Then maybe we can stop farm subsidies to stop making fat people in this country. Oh, and repeal Citizens United so the wives of Chief Justices don’t suckle corporate cash via Tea Party front groups. And and and.

    DS

    posted on March 14th, 2010 at 4:31 pm

  11. 11 On March 14th, 2010, Andy said:

    And if Dan ran the world, he would nationalize textbooks, dispose of our federal-state system of governments, force people to eat only politically correct foods, and would allow Congress to freely legislate what the NY Times Inc. and NBC News Inc. can say about politicians. And he wonders why people do not trust planners over the freedom of the free market.

    But I have to admit that Dan has made some progress in civility as he used the term “Tea Party.”

    posted on March 14th, 2010 at 7:53 pm

  12. 12 On March 14th, 2010, the highwayman said:

    I’d bring back the draft.

    I’d have the Army provide medical treatment for people in America instead of Iraq.

    I’d have the Army Corps of Engineers rebuild most of the rail lines that were trashed for nothing over the past 100 years.

    I’d have $1 per mile tolls on all expressways.

    There would be regular sales taxes on gas though, though no more highway slush fund.

    I’d have no zoning with no shadowy parking requirements. Though I’d have municipalities set aside a fair amount of park land(including wetlands) for people & wildlife.

    posted on March 14th, 2010 at 10:09 pm

  13. 13 On March 15th, 2010, Scott said:

    The “lost” railways were primarily for freight. People have gradually chosen away from rail. All of Amtrak’s daily passengers (78,000) could each drive in a car & travel on 4 lanes of freeway, at normal capacity & patterns.

    To charge 10+ times cost for freeways ($1/mile), it would be comparable to charge $9/mile, apprx, for public transit then.

    posted on March 15th, 2010 at 9:46 am

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