Posted on 06/11/2025 7:44:34 AM PDT by karpov
After enjoying many decades of high public support, higher education in the U.S. is in serious decline. Polls show that a sizeable percentage of the populace now doubts that college is worth the cost and that it contributes to the public good. Enrollments keep falling, and the luster that a college degree used to confer on graduates has become tarnished, especially since recent events indicate that, instead of helping them mature, college turns them into ideologically obsessed activists.
What has gone wrong?
In his latest book, Let Colleges Fail, economics professor Richard Vedder employs his insights to answer that question. The book’s subtitle, “The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education,” further elucidates his point of view. Consumers enjoy the results of markets where wide-open competition prevails, because the drive to succeed weeds out entities that fail to provide good value for the money. The problem in higher education, Vedder observes, is that competition is greatly hampered. Colleges can get into financial trouble just like failing businesses, “but, typically, third parties come to their rescue—governments allocate emergency funds and private donors respond to appeals for support,” he writes.
Moreover, the higher-education system is riddled with features that protect the status quo and retard innovation. Americans should therefore embrace changes that would allow much more competition than we now have.
One of the most glaring problems, Vedder argues, is the escalating cost of college attendance. For most of our history, nobody talked about the cost of college, because it simply was not a problem. In the past, college was not very expensive (even at prestigious schools), and its cost was actually decreasing as a percentage of average income. But that changed in the 1970s. People began to complain about rising tuition rates. What was the cause?
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
“Why Does American Higher Education Work So Poorly?”
Democrats.
Next question, please.
I think it is because “higher” education is run by Leftists and communists.
Multiculturalism.
It works so poorly because it’s designed to.
Higher education now turns young adults against their parents, against God, against sound morals and against their country.
Who wants that?
So does K-12
First of all, some colleges DO fail! Look at all the closures of institutions of higher education!
Second of all, NIH and NSF grants are a public good. The US MUST maintain its position as number one in scientific research! And we need to conquer diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s, diabetes, etc. New research-based drugs also help fuel the US economy! We need those PhD students and postdocs to help make that happen!
If we fail to conquer Alzheimer’s, we shall have a real crisis on our hands, with our aging population!
True, but at least when your child is living under your roof, you have a chance to counter the propaganda.
I’ve had nieces who went K-12 through a private parochial classical school and ended well. After their first year in college, it undid almost EVERYTHING that was instilled in them.
Colleges really are brainwashing clinics.
That was the mistake.
If they had to go to an "University", at least go to a SEC school. The school culture is more conservative even though the faculty is woke.
Because GOD was taken out of the Schools, and America’s GODly heritage is not taught.
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