Soaring College Costs Reflect High Standards
Re “Colleges Have Little Incentive to Hold Down Costs,” Opinion, July 18:
Richard Vedder’s commentary reflects a misunderstanding of what has made U.S. higher education great.
We have the best higher education system in the world because students learn primarily from distinguished faculty, not from online courses, as Vedder proposes.
Students are taught by faculty who are tenured and have time to discover new knowledge and are not saddled with massive teaching loads, as Vedder seems to prefer.
And to not subsidize low-enrollment graduate programs, as Vedder espouses, would destroy the very greatness of U.S. higher education, a system that attracts students worldwide who know where to go to get the finest advanced education on the planet.
Steven B. Oppenheimer
Trustees Outstanding
Professor
California State
University system
In his article on the exorbitant cost of college, Vedder seems to have confused the effect for the cause.
The reason colleges have become so expensive is not because universities have yet to embrace free-market principles but precisely because they have done so.
Why does Vedder think colleges build lavish dormitories and Club Med-like facilities and pay football coaches two to three times as much as the university president? Because the faculty insists upon it?
The universities are in competition with each other. And, to attract the best and the brightest, they have given the “consumers” exactly what they want: Club Med-like creature comforts and less work.
If education hasn’t improved, it is because the customers don’t care. The huge sums of money spent on college football also can be traced to market thinking.
The alumni, the “stockholders” of the university, demand it and won’t give their much needed donations unless they can root for a champion. To be sure, there is plenty of administrative waste, and universities could be run more cost-effectively.
Professor Vedder’s market fundamentalism, however, fails to shed any light on how this might be done.
Michael McLendon
Assistant Professor
of Political Science
Cal State Los Angeles
