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A college "education" that costs in the $100,000 range is ridiculous, no matter what the subjects are. But saying literature, philosophy, history should be eliminated as "an egregious waste of resources" is just plain wrong. To use a literary phrase, that's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. These subjects are the basis of ALL education. Besides, deciding how others can spend their money is not a conservative position. Your initial statement had nothing to do with resource allotment or cost/benefit, although I'm all in favor of big changes in that area.

It's definitely time to get a shovel and clean out the [higher education] barn. But the costly manure that needs to be shoveled starts with stuff like Queer Studies, Women's Studies [substitute Chicano, Black, Native American, anything but Straight White Male (which won't be found) for "Queer"] etc., and all the partisan quasi-educational crap that has infected liberal arts departments in the past 40 years.

It's time to get rid on all non-essential bells and whistles in higher education, and institute a method of faculty hiring that preserves academic freedom but assures that the conservative point of view will be at least equal to all others. I'd prefer that it be dominant but equal is good. All of this is difficult to do. That's why it probably won't happen until there's a major crisis of some sort. But the gutless acquiescence to the Sixties ideological thugs by college and university administrators was one of the great tragedies of my lifetime.

My original statement was "The Liberal Arts faculties are teaching generally useless subjects, and these branches of the Universities should simply be closed down."

In particular, I was using "useless" in its utilitarian sense, so a poor cost/benefit was implied.

Luckily my kids graduated while the price tag was $25K to $30K per year. My co-workers tell me that the going rate is closer to $35K per year at the private colleges and universities which their children attend. This tends to be subsidized by the taxpayer through grants/loans to the student. But the rates charged students and parents are not the whole amount, and the taxpayer picks up additional support through a variety of grants directly to the institution, as well as through the tax deductibility of charitable contributions to the endowment funds.

For this, you get a graduate with a BA who is moderately more employable, although this is not because of anything the graduate learned. It is mainly because the graduate now has a certificate from an august institution that certifies the person was rigorously selected for admission in the beginning, had the minimal gumption necessary to see the program through, and has accumulated 4 years of maturity.

Instead, we should insist on more rigorous curricula in the liberal arts in high school, and then require colleges to both provide education which fits their graduates to make a living in the modern world as well as lays a foundation for life-long education.