>I had three markers in my Ph.D. experience that pretty completely knocked me
>off any desire to be an academic. The first was during the budget cuts in
>higher education during the early 90s. As tuition doubled and services and
>funding was cut, the tenured faculty at the University of California sat
>back and did almost nothing, since their perks were not on the line. Their
>apathy and indifference to the narrowing of opportunity...
I believe *very* strongly that in a good society education--as much
education as people want--should be free. But free higher education
is not an equality-promoting measure. I cannot look at the doubling
of in-state undergraduate tuition and fees for U.C. Berkeley to its
current $4200 a year as a very bad thing. The average college-high
school wage premium these days is $7.50 an hour, after all. Public
subsidies for higher education are regressive.
I think that the public should subsidize higher education: I think
the social benefits from mass secondary and mass higher education are
enormous.
But don't imagine that you are fighting for equality or for social
justice when you demand that in-state fees for Berkeley undergrads be
cut and that a little bit more of the wages of the guy at the 7-11 go
to fund the Berkeley undergrad's education.
The sickest--absolutely the sickest--meeting ever was when then
Berkeley Provost Carol Christ opined that Berkeley had an obligation
to keep the in-state tuition of students at all its professional
schools, including its Business and Law Schools, very low.
Income-contingent loans, yes. But a straight $15,000 a year subsidy
for students at Haas and Boalt?
Brad DeLong
