Friday, July 19, 2013

Higher Education Cost Can Be Lowered

We know new colleges and universities are not being built, tuition rates are sky-rocketing and more and more students wish they could afford to go. It is a simple supply and demand problem. Of course the government wants to help with loans that immediately saddle the graduate or non-graduate with debt. Go figure. Meanwhile, college athletics is booming. Major corporations such as NIKE display their logo's, bowls earn millions, the NCAA earns a billion here and a billion there, while TV rakes in many billions of dollars to pay all of the athletic conferences a few hundred million cumulatively. At least the college athlete gets a scholarship. For any entity making money off of the backs of the college athlete, shame should be brought down upon them. The illegal profits earned as a result of their use of an amateurs athletic ability should be redirected to the colleges and universities as scholarship money to the non student-athlete. Like an insurance fund it can be pooled and disbursed. With this redirection of money, we still need to encourage additional college and university construction in order to expand the competitive base among all institutions. After all, we do not want to see the existing colleges and universities simply raising their rates due to the increased revenue.