WHAT $42,000 A YEAR BUYS YOU – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  I believe that the next great issue to surface in American life will be the condition, and behavior, of our colleges and universities.

The market does work.  And, increasingly, parents are starting to question what $42,000 a year or more buys them at institutions of "higher learning."  Higher, of course, if you're on the political left. 

Traditionally, colleges, with the help of mighty alumni associations, have been able to deflect many criticisms by screaming "academic freedom," invoking the always useful image of "McCarthyism," and declaring themselves sacred ground, lofty and above we mere humans.  Too important and pure to be answering questions.  That is changing.

Where does $42,000 go?  The New York Times provided some of the answers:

American colleges are spending a declining share of their budgets on instruction and more on administration and recreational facilities for students, according to a study of college costs released Friday...

....the trend toward increased spending on nonacademic areas prevailed across the higher education spectrum, with public and private, elite and community colleges increasing expenditures more for student services than for instruction, the report said.

The student services category can include spending on career counseling and financial aid offices, but also on intramural athletics and student centers.

Why should we be shocked?  Our young generations are increasingly adolescent.  In the 1930s, American kids danced to the music of George Gershwin, and loved it.  And today?  The music is basically just for kids.  Very young kids with very young tastes.

“This is the country-clubization of the American university,” said Richard K. Vedder, a professor at Ohio University who studies the economics of higher education. “A lot of it is for great athletic centers and spectacular student union buildings. In the zeal to get students, they are going after them on the basis of recreational amenities.”

Not really that new a story.  But this trend, combined with lower academic standards in many places and the turning of colleges into propaganda centers of the political left, may finally be raising the eyebrows of those who write the checks.

The next big blow can come if a Republican president, in the mold of Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, made it clear, once and for all, that there is no right to a federal grant, and that the endless demands by colleges for federal money will be looked at more carefully, and with two eyes.  Colleges may actually have to defend the way they spend our dollars.  What a shock.

July 13, 2010