My good buddy, Andy, routinely bitches and moans about the bloated administrative costs that cause university/college tuitions to be so darned high.

It’s not just people (although there are plenty of those), but a cornucopia of new academic buildings and dorms.  Not to mention sports programs.  And, those bills are simply passed along to the students in the guise of tuition payments.

I recently ran across a number that blew me away.  The University of Kentucky has spent- wait for it- more than $ 800K a day for the past decade (and some) on such costs.  And, Kentucky is among our poorer states.  (It’s not the only one- Penn State has a budget crisis due to overspending, Oklahoma is spiking tuition rates to pay for its inflated costs….on and on.)

And, you wonder why there is a student loan crisis?   These kids have been borrowing money to cover the costs of tuition that have been driven up by bloat.

Even at state schools, which do receive allotments from the state governments, spending is out of control.  They have averaged a $ 2.40 increase in tuition and fees for every $ 1 cut from state support.

To some degree, this reminds me how public corporations bloat their executive salaries.  They survey what other companies are paying and then raise their executive pay to match or exceed that- regardless of corporate performance.  College governing boards are no better.

Most of the outlays are related to hiring- for administrators, faculty, coaches, even financial experts.   (This is why salaries and benefits now comprise more than ½ the operating budgets of colleges and universities.)  Just take a look at the employee rosters at these institutions- Director, Associate Director, Assistant Director, plus in the Dean’s offices- Assistants, associates, and executives.  This is why college costs rose some 54% from 2002 to 2022- more than any other household costs except for gas during that time period.

(By the way, it’s not just schools. Our theaters have been using the same prescription.  The Arena State in DC spent a fortune on new digs- raising the costs to see a production.The same applies to Los Angeles venues.  There really is no reason why it should cost $ 250 to see a play.

And, today is….

Here’s what President Biden had to say on this anniversary

“Sixty years ago [today], the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans marched on Washington for jobs and freedom. In describing his dream for us all, Dr. King spoke of redeeming the “promissory note to which every American was to fall heir” derived from the very idea of America — we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. While we’ve never fully lived up to that promise as a nation, we have never fully walked away from it…”

“For generations, Black Americans haven’t always been fully included in our democracy or our economy, but by pure courage and heart, they have never given up pursuing the American Dream.”

Thankfully, President Biden has abandoned the “trickle down theory”, that only provided dregs and detritus to those below the top of the threshold. “Trickle-down economics holds that taxes should be cut for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, that public investments in priorities such as education, infrastructure and health care should be shrunk, and good jobs shipped overseas. It has exacerbated inequality and systemic barriers that make it harder for Black Americans to start a business, own a home, send their children to school and retire with dignity.”