Like a true Nature's child, we were born, born to be ..., well, apparently it was a mistake

The 60s campus radicals who now run our universities (the ones who did the sit-ins in the administration offices but who now officially occupy them), having apparently given up on improving their students minds, are now engaged in helping them change their gender.

The new idea hatched by the Cult of Diversity: subsidize sex-change operations:

A number of elite private institutions, such as Duke and Yale, have recently added sex-change operations to the list of covered health-care procedures, raising student fees in order to pay for it. The operations and treatments can run higher than $50,000 for a single student.

To Timothy Leary's "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out" we can now add: Transmutate.

Ever notice which college departments never go on the chopping block?

The recent ouster of Theresa Sullivan from the presidency of the University of Virginia appears to have been at least in part the result of her unwillingness to cut academic programs according the prevailing utilitarian calculus popular among some. Here is part of the Washington Post report:

Besides broad philosophical differences, they had at least one specific quibble: They felt Sullivan lacked the mettle to trim or shut down programs that couldn’t sustain themselves financially, such as obscure academic departments in classics and German.

Classics and German "obscure"? Classics used to be all universities did. No wonder higher education is in the state it is in.


Oh, and did you ever notice that when the Sophisters and Calculators go talking about cutting academic departments that don't pay their way, they always target philosophy or (I'm thinking Florida here) anthropology--and now classics and German? Have you ever heard them talk about cutting, say Black Studies or Women's and Gender Studies?


Funny how that works.

Attorney General Conway continues to hammer gas companies, ignore tuition increases

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway is again bearing down on gas companies for raising their prices. Today he filed a temporary injunction against Marathon Petroleum Co.

So far, no word from the AG about anything he plans to do on price-gouging by state universities, who have once again raised tuition in excess of inflation.

C'mon Jack. We're waiting ...

Wall Street journal: Student debt at record high

According to the Wall Street Journal, student debt continues to rise to mammoth proportions.

Unfortunately, the writer of the story has a rather strange view of why this might be good: because it will cause them to try to make more money. Hmmm. Wouldn't that be the case also if each of them simply had that amount of money stolen from them?

Sheeez.

Sex ed course cancelled, human race saved

There may now be some hope that the human race can avert annihilation: one university, anyway, has decided to can its human sexuality course. As I have said before, if modern educators do to sex what they have done to reading, writing, and arithmetic, they could very well bring about the extinction of the race. Fortunately, however,--at least at one university, cooler heads have prevailed.

"Northwestern University’s Department of Psychology will not offer a course in human sexuality during the 2011-12 academic year,” the university said in an official statement.

So says Inside Higher Education.

The course was, apparently, the most popular course at Northwestern. I am shocked. So shocked. More hormone charged college students wanting to take a course on sex as opposed to, say, calculus?

Robert VerBruggen at National Review says that, despite the sometimes "circus-like atmosphere," this was an overreaction, and that school officials should simply come up with new guidelines. I don't know. The current wisdom at our universities is that, among other things, males and females are not fundamentally different at all. If you can't even get that right, you why anyone would think such a course would be anything but preposterous.

The higher ed bubble. When will it burst?

They're continuing to increase the size of the college education bubble, says economist Mark Perry at Carpe Diem. Don't want to be around when it bursts.

Call for audit of CPE covered widely in press

My call for State Auditor Crit Luallen to audit the Council on Postsecondary Education after the CPE rubber stamped the outlandish tuition increases at the state's colleges and universities was covered widely in the press yesterday by the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and more broadly by the Gannett News Service.

Here is the relevant section of the Herald-Leader's story:

Also on Thursday, the Family Foundation of Kentucky called for state Auditor Crit Luallen to review the operations of the council because of the public college tuition increases it allows.

Terry Sebastian, a spokesman for Luallen's office, said that the office received the Family Foundation's request on Thursday afternoon.

"Once we've had a chance to thoroughly review it, we will make our decision," he said.

Martin Cothran, a senior policy analyst with the Family Foundation, said in a letter requesting the audit that the council's action in approving tuition increases "that, in some cases, are almost three times the rate of inflation, raises the serious question of whether the CPE is adequately doing its job in keeping higher education affordable for Kentuckians."

Robert King, president of the CPE, which coordinates the activities of the state's public universities, said that he had offered to discuss the council's reasoning with Cothran.

"I offered ... to take him through all the data we consider," King said. "But if Crit Luallen or her staff wants to examine what we looked at or how we made our decision, we have nothing to hide."

I'm sure Robert King is a very nice gentleman and I plan to take him up on his offer--and hope to share some things with him as well.

Guess who took a stand against tuition increases--3 years ago

Guess who said the following in an opinion piece in 2008:

"... tuition has once again increased at levels that make obtaining a postsecondary degree increasingly unaffordable for Kentucky citizens."

a. Governor Steve Beshear
b. President Barack Obama
c. Coach Rick Pitino
d. State Auditor Crit Luallen
e. Teen hearthrob Justin Bieber

If you answered "d." you are correct. Crit Luallen, the very one we called upon yesterday to audit the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) after it acquiesced yesterday to tuition increases that place a college education further out of reach for Kentucky high school graduates, lambasted the universities for raising tuitions.

Go Crit!

Now can we have our audit? Pretty please?

Audit the Council on Postsecondary Education

The following is the letter I sent today to State Auditor Crit Luallen, via the e-mail on her website for reporting "suspected fraud and waste":

April 28, 2011

Crit Luallen
Kentucky State Auditor
209 St. Clair
Frankfort, KY 40601

Dear Ms. Luallen,

Your recent efforts to bring to public light the inadequacies at the Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education (KSBPE) are commendable. It is vitally important that state officials such as yourself monitor the boards and commissions that are responsible for overseeing private educational institutions to ensure that they are adequately doing their job--even though, as in the case of the KSBPE, they receive no taxpayer money.

In light of the even more urgent responsibility on the part of public officials such as yourself to monitor those boards and commission which do receive public funds and which are responsible for overseeing our public institutions, we hereby request that your office conduct an audit of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE).

The Council's recent action in approving tuition increases at our public colleges and universities that, in some cases, are almost three times the rate of inflation raises the serious question of whether the CPE is adequately doing its job in keeping higher education affordable for Kentuckians. This is part of the mission of the CPE.

We thank you for your public service, and request a response to this letter.

Martin Cothran
Senior Policy Analyst
The Family Foundation of Kentucky

Family Foundation cries foul on approval of college tuition increase

LEXINGTON, KY--An advocacy group that has called for moratorium on college tuition increases criticized today's approval by the Council for Postsecondary Education (CPE) of tuition increases for state universities and called for State Auditor to audit the group.

"This is a clear sign that the body that is supposed to be monitoring our public institutions of higher education is not serious about college affordability," said Martin Cothran, spokesperson for The Family Foundation of Kentucky. "This is a regressive tax on Kentucky families that is eroding the educational and economic vitality of our state."

Cothran also called on State Auditor Crit Luallen to audit the Council on Postsecondary Education. "The State Auditor just released an audit of the commission that oversees for-profit colleges in the state. That commission doesn't even get any state money. Where is the audit of the CPE, which does get state money and which oversees public colleges and universities?" Cothran asked.

Luallen recently released an audit of the Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education, callings its oversight of for-profit colleges "inadequate" and bemoaning the fact that the board had not been audited in 10 years. "Part of the mission of the CPE is to keep college affordable and they are not doing it. Where are the investigations?"

Cothran said his group will continue to call attention to the problem of eroding college affordability and will be talking with state lawmakers leading up the next session of the General Assembly.

###

State auditor needs to wake up on oversight of higher ed in KY

The State Auditor Crit Luallen Wednesday released an audit of the agency that overseas for profit educational institutions in Kentucky:

Calling its oversight “inadequate,” State Auditor Crit Luallen today released an audit of the Kentucky State Board for Proprietary Education, which monitors proprietary education institutions across the Commonwealth.

Uh, yo, Crit, it's nice that you're paying attention to for profit schools. But where are the audits of our public institutions which state government has a direct role in overseeing? Have you taken a look at the Council on Postsecondary Education yet? This is the body that is poised to approve another round of massive tuition increases, making college less affordable for Kentuckians, which, ironically violates the group's mission statement, which says:

The Council and the institutions are committed to ensuring that college is affordable and accessible to all academically qualified Kentuckians ...

The Council is supposed to be taking care of this and is not. So where are the audits of the Council? Of the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville, who have just raised their tuition 6 percent for next year?

Is anyone in state government paying any attention to this problem at all?

It's time to deal with the problem of higher education costs

LEXINGTON, KY--A family advocacy group which has called for a tuition moratorium is pointing to tuition increases by two more state universities as further evidence that action by state officials is needed. The Family Foundation has announced that it will be pursuing a tuition moratorium in the next legislative session. But because of the new announcements by the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University that they are raising their tuition rates--UK by 6 percent and EKU by 5 percent--the group is now calling for quicker action.

"When gas stations in Jefferson County dramatically increased their prices several years ago, the Attorney General launched an investigation because of the effect on the public," said Martin Cothran, spokesman for The Family Foundation. "Universities are increasing their prices at almost three times the rate of inflation. Where are the investigations?"

Cothran said that state officials and policymakers have been averting their gaze from the problem for years. "The problem is not just that no one has proposed a solution: the problem is that no one has even tried to address it. Well, the time has come."

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education is meeting on April 28 and has the power to approve or reject the proposed increases.

###

Eastern Kentucky University joins the tuition increase feeding frenzy

Eastern Kentucky University has joined the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky in raising student tuition. EKU is raising theirs 5 percent. Gee, that's only about twice the rate of inflation.

I am quoted in this story in the Richmond Register.

University of Kentucky levies another prosperity tax on Kentucky families

The University of Kentucky dealt the state's economic prospects another blow by matching U of L's recent tuition increase with a 6 percent increase of its own, proving once again the need for a moratorium on tuition increases. This is just the latest piece of evidence that higher education costs are completely out of control and that college and university administrations are not taking the student debt crisis seriously.

UK apparently thinks we're all supposed to be overjoyed that they're not raising tuition by double digits. Huh? The next time someone fleeces you, make sure you thank them that they didn't do worse things to you.

These institutions have long made a claim on public support because raising the level of education in the state will improve the long-term economic picture of the state. But it is becoming increasingly clear that they are putting out more and more graduates who will spend a good part of the professional lives trying to pay back the debt they incurred to get their degrees.

As of 2009, the average college graduate had incurred student debt of over $24,000.

Here's the Louisville Courier-Journal's article today in which I am quoted.

These are schools, mind you, who seem to have a bottomless purse when it comes to promoting themselves with the public and with state lawmakers. How much money are they spending on lobbyists and on promotion in order to convince us that then need more?

Part of the problem is that state legislators have not asked university leadership the tough questions that need to be asked about their lack of cost control. It's time for someone to hold these people's feet to the fire.

C'mon guys, let's show some leadership on this issue.

UK Rankings down, Lee Todd's salary up

My friend Bob the Economist (Robert Martin, emeritus Boles Professor of Economics at Centre College) slamming the ridiculous salary raise for outgoing University of Kentucky President Lee Todd:

In a tone-deaf moment, the UK governing board, on the occasion of President Lee T. Todd Jr.'s retirement, decided to increase his total compensation for his last year to $825,000.

A firestorm of anger and outrage has been burning over excessive executive compensation for the last two years, and here is the UK board shoveling Kentucky coal on to the fire. Further, can it be true that board members have not read nor heard about the Goldwater Institute's report? If not, why are they serving on UK's board?

The Herald-Leader quotes trustees who say they cannot hire a new president unless they significantly increase compensation. Interim board chairman Billy Joe Miles said the president's job is more important than the governor's job (apparently not more important than the basketball coach's, however).

Since this new compensation is about double what the U.S. president makes, it means being UK president is more important than being president of the United States.

See this is how it works: you head a university that says it is going to become a "top 20" research university but instead goes down in the rankings, and then increase the presidents salary by 50 percent.

Can Todd take the trustees with him when he leaves? Please?