Teacher, Teacher

Tyler Cowan gives us his 10-point summary of a talk he gave to college administrators: My Talk To University Administrators. All are worth reading, but there are some I'd like to highlight:

3. Community colleges are in many cases turning out to be stronger competitors than are for-profits.

Commuity colleges are serving the perpetually underserved in the higher education world: people with ability, but who lack the $$ or the time to go to "regular" college. They should be encouraged, but instead are often first on the chopping block.

4. The higher education bubble has burst. The expiration of stimulus funds in 2011 will be a crushing event for many public sector universities.

Amen. Really the problem is not the bursting of the bubble, but the obvious diminishing returns that a college degree is delivering. Not sure why Cowan is focusing on public sector universities. The private ones are outrageously expensive and, with the exception of the Ivies, deliver undifferentiated results. At this point, I would pay for my kid to go to UC, and no more. No way I would pay $50,000 to send her to, say, Davidson.

7. The way to be fiscally responsible is to refuse luxury projects in good times. If bad times have come it is already too late.

That's advice that works anywhere, but not in the world of higher education, apparently. Baby steps.