Darryl A. Phillips

Funding for state colleges continues to attract attention in the press.  An interesting opinion piece appeared in Sunday’s NYTimes.  The author argues that health care budgets and state funding of colleges are related.  Over the decades as state spending on medical programs has increased, funding for higher education has decreased.  If we do a better job funding health care at the federal level, states will be able to offer more support to colleges.  Interesting idea.

Recently I’ve found myself straying in this blog, moving beyond things ancient to comment on issues related to higher education.  These are important issues, and people need to understand the problems that we are facing in this country.

One major issue is the lack of direct funding for public colleges and universities.  Many institutions are now public-in-name-only with only a small fraction of their operating revenue coming from state funds.  As taxpayers, we need to insist that spending on higher education be increased.  Strong public institutions of higher education are essential to the economic and social well being of our state and nation.

For more information, please check out my letter to the editor that appeared in today’s Post and Courier.

Sunday’s New York Times education supplement had an interesting story about the rise of college administrators.  In 1976 there were, on average, 42 full-time administrators for every 1,000 college students.  In 2008, that number had risen to 84 administrators.  At the same time, the number of full-time faculty members dropped from 65 per 1,000 students to 55.

As college tuition rises across the country, you might well ask where that money is going.  The answer is not  faculty salaries.   I’m all in favor of educating the whole student with the goal of producing well-rounded individuals.  But do colleges really need more full-time administrators than full-time faculty members?

The number of tenured faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities has decreased dramatically over the past three decades.  What does this mean for higher education?  Read the story posted by the Chronicle of Higher Education to find out.