EduBubble

At least that’s the guesstimate that I get from Bob Samuels, a man who still has the stomach to read what the university has to say. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Tax revenues are falling. Inflation is not on the radar. The most successful people in the state don’t have college degrees. So why not insist on big spending increases of 16% each year!

He says that the spending increases are now part of the plan and so it seems like the regents are going to distract everyone by making it a battle between the legislatures and the students. If the legislature only coughs up 4% of the needed cash, then the students will be on the hook for 12%. No doubt the students will be used as pawns to grouse and complain about how the legislature is hurting their future or their dreams or competitiveness or multi-culturalism or whatever. The legislature will be the bad guy and the students will sit there looking young and heartbroken all because the legislature is not rolling over to do whatever Mark Yudof demands.

It’s a fascinating political game because the students end up paying one way or another. While everyone wants to believe that the money from the legislature is free, it isn’t. You just have to pay on April15th. But the students don’t seem smart enough to recognize this so they march off just like the college industrial complex wants them to do.

Of course there’s no reason why colleges really need 16% more cash to spend. Inflation is low. Real estate around Cali is still dropping in price. Adjuncts are in even greater supply. Heck, tenure-track professors are in even greater supply. So those costs won’t be rising 16%. Lord knows where the money is going to go but I’m sure it won’t go into anything the students can see, touch or hear.