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Two biggest drivers are 1) massive declines in public support (for public universities, obviously) and 2) more administrators. Much of the growth in administra
by lthornberry 5y ago
Two biggest drivers are 1) massive declines in public support (for public universities, obviously) and 2) more administrators.
Much of the growth in administration is driven by a significant rise in the costs to comply with federal regulation. Those regulations are not bad--it's the cost of complying with things like disability laws, Title IX, etc--but they require collecting and reporting significant amounts of data, and that isn't free.
There's other stuff too; some colleges do have the lazy rivers and fancy dorms, many colleges lose money on their football program, etc. But those aren't the fundamental drivers.
By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the money is definitely NOT going to faculty salaries. Salaries for full-time faculty have been stagnant for decades even though an increasing percentage of classes are taught by poorly-paid adjuncts.
- ativzzz 5y ago> Much of the growth in administration is driven by a significant rise in the costs to comply with federal regulation. Those regulations are not bad Similar things happen in healthcare. My SO works in pharma and the amount of red tape they are required to navigate significantly increases the complexity of their administrative work and decreases the cost-efficiency of their business, partially passing on the costs to the price of drugs. Again, like you said, the regulations are not bad (like regulating the types of communication they can have with doctors), but there is a price to pay to keep them.
- whimsicalism 5y agoAlso, prices aren't visible before hand, so it is more difficult for price competition to work. Also, medical profession trade unions/cartels (aka AMA) constricting the labor market for medical work. These things probably could actually be resolved by governmental regulation.
- ativzzz 5y ago> These things probably could actually be resolved by governmental regulation. They could, but I wonder if it would actually improve the state of things. We would then need to increase the size of the bureaucracy (in the government and in each institution that does any of these things) to meet these regulations, and given that a bureaucracy becomes less efficient with size it may not actually make things any cheaper.
- whimsicalism 5y agoNo, I think public prices would definitely make things cheaper. It would also incentivize keeping bureaucracy lean, there is little to no price incentive to do so now.