Paul Johnson

Comments:

• A major reason that costs of attending college at state assisted schools have risen faster than inflation is that state legislators are paying a considerably smaller proportion of the bills. A generation or so ago, public colleges got about 1/3 of their funding from the state budget, about 1/3 from tuition/fees, and about 1/3 from research grant money and private donations. Nowadays, on average, only about 1/4 of state colleges' funding comes from state appropriations, and increases in tuition and fees have made up most of the difference. The second big factor has been the huge growth in administrative overhead (primarily salaries of non-teaching administrators and their support staff). Just recently, the total number of college administrators in the US was announced as having finally exceeded the total number of full-time college faculty members.

  Post: An Educated Choice

  Link to comment from August 2, 2023

• Given your writing talents, if the worst happens and retirement income unexpectedly takes a bad downward turn, may we expect you to supplement your income with an instructive series of columns on hacks for surviving adversity in retirement ? ;-)

  Post: Ignoring the Experts

  Link to comment from September 11, 2021