I had a professor friend who hated the teaching part. She took sabbatical whenever she was eligible. Professors get huge salaries and great perks. Teaching, for many teachers, is no longer a noble profession, it is a really cushy job. Now, before all you teachers flame me, I am not talking about ALL teachers. My professor (former) friends were all Libs. That is who is mostly teaching at the college level.
“The way to cut college costs is to cut the professor’s salaries and do away with tenure”
You are approaching this problem from the wrong side. Tenure is terrible but it exists because of the fundamental structure of financing education.
As usual, government has subsidized a product and the price has gone way up. There are few market forces in place to control college spending.
You have to take away the free flow of cash to the colleges to make them responsive. They will never change if they get subsidized student loans, government grants and alumni contributions. Why should they?
Here’s a short plan:
1. Education loans should be at market rates
2. Get the Feds out of the student loan business
3. Stop the worthless research from the Feds
4. Encourage alumni to ask for change before they donate to colleges
5. And most importantly, allow students to default on student loans