No change in five years

Five years ago, April 28, 2017, I wrote this:

"Why should conservative taxpayers be paying to fund our "everything is hate speech" universities? By far the largest areas of state spending, on average, are education (both K-12 and higher education) and health care. Why should you pay to have the state turn your kids against you and your values?"

I was thinking about that today as the demand to pay other people's college debts grows. Yes, some college graduates have high debts. I don't. Maybe the plumber has debts for his trucks. Or the guy who was sweeping up broken glass from the accident yesterday at Five Points has a second mortgage, or the one on the mower this morning is trying to pay back the coyote who got him into the country, or my newly retired neighbors who moved in two weeks ago will have some debt to redo the 80s decorating of their unit, or the woman with a cane I saw shopping at Aldi's today could sure use an extra $500 a month for live comfortably. Those are the people who will be paying the debts of these primarily young, healthy adults with a bright future ahead of them.  Why do they need these people to pay off their debt? Debt they agreed to. Someone pays, you know. It's not "forgiven." We the taxpayer get stuck with it.  And why should they ask people they don't respect or admire to pay for their rent, nights out, pizza and beer, drugs, football games, travel costs, ripped jeans, and new computers?

A caller to the Dennis Prager show this morning said he fears for the future of our country. His kids (he was divorced in 2017) lived with him during the pandemic lockdown and he got a look at the on-line classes. He was sickened. His 16 year old told him Abraham Lincoln was the most racist of all the presidents. She knows that because her teacher told her.  His college age daughter is learning the same drivel. He asked Dennis Prager what could he do. The show went to commercial, and I arrived at my destination. But paying for these misinformed and silly children to go to college isn't the answer.

What stresses millennials?

If you look up “millennials + stress” you'll see some charts and graphs and a few ideas on how to handle stress, but not much on what is causing the stress. Limbaugh read a list today, which I found so vacuous and funny, I had to check and see if it was a real survey. Well, you still don't know about things published as "a study," or "research,' but here's the list--I looked it up--supposedly, someone asked them. I surely would have guessed losing a smart phone would be #1. They don't breathe without them. Notice how much is digital--perhaps they need to go off the grid now to prepared for the New Green Deal, which will necessarily also have to eliminate the phones. Don't know why choosing what to wear would even be on the list--how hard is it to pick out a pair of jeans? And shouldn't school loan payments be higher, like maybe #2 or #3? https://www.studyfinds.org/survey-millennials-life-more-stressful-than-ever-before/.

Here are the top 20 stressful scenarios reported by millennials:

1. Losing wallet/credit card

2. Arguing with partner

3. Commute/traffic delays

4. Losing phone

5. Arriving late to work

6. Slow WiFi

7. Phone battery dying

8. Forgetting passwords

9. Credit card fraud

10. Forgetting phone charger

11. Losing/misplacing keys

12. Paying bills

13. Job interviews

14. Phone screen breaking

15. Credit card bills

16. Check engine light coming on

17. School loan payments

18. Job security

19. Choosing what to wear

20. Washing dishes

The Get into College for a ransom scandal

It is a scandal involving rich celebs yes, but it’s much bigger. . .those we know about in today’s stories  “conspired with others known and unknown”. Before it rolls into history (came out on March 13—there’s little being said today) there will be hundreds, and probably a few college presidents.  Someone will be squeezed to tell all.

“American higher education, from the ivy covered walls of Yale and Georgetown to the sun drenched campuses of USC and Stanford, was rocked Tuesday by a federal racketeering case that alleges celebrities and other wealthy parents funneled millions through an Orange County non-profit foundation in return for fraudulent entrance test scores and college admission facilitated by corrupt coaches and athletic department administrators.” https://www.pe.com/2019/03/12/newport-beach-is-at-the-center-of-nationwide-bribery-for-admissions-scandal/

I think the whole College Board/SAT/ACT is a scandal—so many kids get special tutoring, and it’s not illegal, those are valid, incorporated legal companies that do this, but many cannot afford it, and I’m sure some can be bought and stand-ins are used.  https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/sat-act-cheating-scandal-huffman-test-students-13682741.php

And how about the “volunteer” requirement that high schools have and colleges request—supposedly to even the playing field so less academically qualified have something to show.  Ha.  The “best” students also garner that area and need that to get into the Ivy League or the California system.  If it’s “volunteer” why is it required? And the lower or middle class kids who need to work can’t afford to take “free” internships.   What about those students who are shy or have poor social skills, but are good in academics—they can flunk “volunteering.”

And the whole athletic business.  That was one of the biggest outrages in this current scandal, but how many others have done this not connected to this particular named crook William Singer, owner of the Edge College & Career Network and CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation.  Photoshopping faces onto someone else’s body!  Coaches heads are rolling.

In this scandal, millions of dollars changed hands, but what about the kids who can’t attend out of state colleges because it’s too expensive, but illegals can attend? What about those who claim they are 1/32 black or Indian and are bumped ahead of the poor white teen from Appalachia?  This scandal involves people who can afford  to drop $100,000 to get kiddo into Yale or Harvard or Dartmouth, but we have all sorts of “jump ahead in line” from illegal immigration, to “who do you know who can drop your name to  HR” to donating to your alma mater a few years before junior wants to enroll. 

And what about colleges/universities using rich Nigerian and Egyptian foreign students to claim on their “diversity” quota or recruiting black students who could do well at OSU-Marion campus but will flunk out with debt at Yale, just so the school doesn’t get in hot water with government regulations. 

The money game of the higher education system  is a whole lot bigger than this scandal.

Those named:

“The following were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud:

Gregory Abbott, 68, of New York, founder and chairman of International Dispensing Corp., a food and beverage packaging company.

Marcia Abbott, 59, of New York.

Gamal Abdelaziz, 62, of Las Vegas, the former senior executive of resort and casino operator of Wynn Macau resort in Macau, China.

Diane Blake, 55, of San Francisco, an executive at a retail merchandising firm.

Todd Blake, 53, of San Francisco, an entrepreneur and investor.

Jane Buckingham, 50, of Beverly Hills, California, founder and CEO of Trendera boutique marketing company.

Gordon Caplan, 52, of Greenwich, Connecticut, co-chairman of New York-based Willkie Farr & Gallagher, an international law firm.

I-Hin “Joey” Chen, 64, of Newport Beach, California, operates a provider of warehousing and related services for the shipping industry.

Amy Colburn, 59, of Palo Alto, California.

Gregory Colburn, 61, of Palo Alto, California.

Robert Flaxman, 62, of Laguna Beach, California, founder and CEO of real estate development firm Crown Realty & Development.

Mossimo Giannulli, 55, of Los Angeles, fashion designer and founder of Mossimo fashion company (also married to Lori Loughlin).

Elizabeth Henriquez, 56, of Atherton, California.

Manuel Henriquez, 55, of Atherton, California, founder, chairman and CEO of Hercules Technology Growth Capital, a publicly traded specialty finance company.

Douglas Hodge, 61, of Laguna Beach, California, former CEO of investment management company Pacific Investment Management Co.

Felicity Huffman, 56, of Los Angeles, actress.

Agustin Huneeus Jr., 53, of San Francisco, owner of wine vineyards in Napa Valley and listed as co-founder of the Quintessa vineyard estate.

Bruce Isackson, 61, of Hillsborough, California, president of a real estate development firm WP Investments.

Davina Isackson, 55, of Hillsborough, California.

Michelle Janavs, 48, of Newport Coast, California, former executive of a large food manufacturer.

Elisabeth Kimmel, 54, of Las Vegas, owner and president of First Busey, a media company.

Marjorie Klapper, 50, of Menlo Park, California, co-owner of jewelry business.

Lori Loughlin, 54, of Los Angeles, actress.

Toby MacFarlane, 56, of Del Mar, California, former senior executive at a title insurance company.

William McGlashan Jr., 55, of Mill Valley, California, senior executive at a global equity firm TPG Capital.

Marci Palatella, 63, of Healdsburg, California, CEO of a liquor distribution company.

Peter Jan Sartorio, 53, of Menlo Park, California, president and co-founder of Elena's Food Specialties.

Stephen Semprevivo, 53, of Los Angeles, executive at Cydcor, a privately held provider of outsourced sales teams.

Devin Sloane, 53, of Los Angeles, founder and CEO of aquaTECTURE LLC, a provider of drinking and wastewater systems.

John Wilson, 59, of Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, founder and CEO of private equity and real estate development firm.

Homayoun Zadeh, 57, of Calabasas, California, an associate professor of dentistry.

Robert Zangrillo, 52, of Miami, founder and CEO of private investment firm Dragon Global.”

Athletics

According to Sports Illustrated, “Among coaches indicted are Stanford's sailing coach John Vandemoer, former Yale women's soccer coach Rudy Meredith, former Georgetown tennis coach Gordie Ernst, current Texas men's tennis coach Michael Center and current UCLA men's soccer coach Jorge Salcedo. Ernst, who is accused of taking multiple six-figure cash bribes to admit fake recruits, resigned without explanation from Georgetown last summer. He is now coaching at Rhode Island. . . Wake Forest volleyball coach William "Bill" Ferguson was indicted in the scheme on the same charges as Vandemoer.”

“Four USC athletics staff members were also charged including the Trojans former women's soccer head coach Ali Khosroshahin, former women's soccer assistant coach Laura Janke and current USC Senior Associate Athletic Director Donna Heinel and water polo head coach Jovan Vavic. Heinel and Vavic were fired as a result.

Mark Riddell, the Director of College Entrance Exam Preparation at IMG Academy, a private college preparatory school and sports academy in Bradenton, Fla., has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud alongside charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering.” https://www.si.com/more-sports/2019/03/12/college-admissions-recruiting-bribery-scheme-indictments-felicity-huffman-lori-loughlin

The Mercury News reports: “In April 2016, Giannulli and Laughlin expressed concerns about their older daughter’s “academic qualifications” for USC after meeting with a college counselor, as detailed in a 204-page federal complaint

But Heinel presented their daughter as a prospective member of USC’s women’s crew team in a meeting with the university’s subcommittee for athletic admissions later that fall.

The daughter posed for a photo on an ergometer, a rowing machine, as part of an elaborate effort to demonstrate her participation in the sport despite no experience.

Giannulli sent Heinel $50,000 days later, and she was admitted.

The following year, Giannulli and Laughlin made a similar effort for their younger daughters. In this instance, they presented her as a crew coxswain for the L.A. Marina Club team and also had a photo taken of her on an ergometer.

In exchange for her admittance, Giannulli again sent Heinel $50,000.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/03/13/four-connected-to-usc-athletics-indicted-in-college-admissions-scandal/

He thinks the federal government is a college student’s friend—an e-mail exchange

Really?  Your source?  Did you know the government and its own predatory loans, grants, scholarships, etc. is the main reason the bubble of student loans is bigger than the housing bubble of 2007?  When I entered Manchester College (private) in 1957, a college education was about $1,000 a year with tuition, fees, housing, food and transportation. My sophomore year at the University of Illinois (public) was about the same. 

If you use a calculator for 1957-58 dollars and convert to 2018 dollars, 60 years later, you’ll see what throwing money at colleges does to the costs.  College costs have soared far higher and at a faster rate than medical costs, even though medicine has gone through far greater changes and technological and pharmaceutical improvements. Our lives have been extended by the medical improvements.  A college education has been cheapened; a BA or BS is today not worth a lot except to go on to graduate school and leave with $70,000 in debt.  Colleges have made few changes except to shift most of the faculty to the left of center, add programs in “area studies,” remove Shakespeare and American history, and deny conservatives their right to a bias-free education. The more money government provides to students, the more the universities and colleges raise their tuition and fees. Funny how the “market” works, isn’t it?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, prices in 2018 are 772.10% higher than prices in 1958. The dollar experienced an average inflation rate of 3.68% per year during this period.  In other words, $1,000 in 1958 is equivalent in purchasing power to $8,721.04 in 2018, a difference of $7,721.04 over 60 years.

Do you know any college/university where a student can attend for $8,721 a year? All costs, not just tuition and fees. Administrative costs have soared as more and more non-faculty are added, especially in the huge departments of equality, diversity, disability that may have 50 or so employees (at OSU) as well as those assigned to the individual departments, courses are watered down or expanded so it now takes 5-6 years to finish rather than 4, young men and women are encouraged to remain adolescents longer and remain in parents’ care until late 20s, very odd courses are required for students, staff and faculty like “hate speech” or “appropriate non-sexist dating behavior” which chew up many hours that could be  useful for studying and which make the old “in loco parentis” of my era look like wild freedom.

No one can reverse this overbearing, interfering federal meddling in higher education except the Department of Education, and since even Republicans don’t like to give up power, I think not much will come of this except more money being thrown at the problem, and a bigger bureaucracy to make sure the tax payers get screwed again.

What are liberals doing to college students?

Some of us, usually Republicans or Conservatives, think it's a bad idea to have such a high percent of our college faculty  liberal/Democrat/progressive. They are turning out graduates with $70,000 debt much of it from the government, who leave with social science degrees and poor earning potential, who can't afford to get married, or to buy a home, or to have children. Then with envy in their hearts they listen to socialists and vote for Democrats. Is this the Democrats' secret plan to bring down the country?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8427-2005Mar28.html  (2005)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/11/the-dramatic-shift-among-college-professors-thats-hurting-students-education/?utm_term=.60388b5d2ab4  (2016)

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/27/research-confirms-professors-lean-left-questions-assumptions-about-what-means (2017) defensive

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/05/07/nearly-40-percent-top-liberal-arts-colleges-have-no-republican-professors (2018)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/most-u-s-college-students-afraid-to-disagree-with-professors-1540588198 (2018, James Freeman)

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/college-students-love-socialism-dont-have-clue-what-it-means

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/10/students-more-liberal-but-its-not-because-their-professors-james-piereson-naomi-riley-column/1012622001/ (opposite viewpoint)

Higher education costs

Recently we purchased a 40" color TV for $325, 50 years after we paid $375 for our first color TV that required monthly service. The trade off is we now pay a monthly subscription cost to a cable company. In today's dollars that would be $2,752. 60 years ago I paid $1,000 for room, board, and tuition at a private Christian college, and it was about the same as the University of Illinois to which I transferred. Today that should be $7,338. At both institutions, those costs were in part subsidized either by donors, the church or the citizens of Illinois and I was expected to be a donor after graduation. Government regulations and interference have changed the cost of education. Big time. I don't see how Mike Lee's solution will change it, but it's important to know what has happened to put so many families in debt when their only solution seems to be to borrow more money from the government.  

"The Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act. This bill would allow states to create their own accreditation system for institutions that want to be eligible for federal financial aid dollars.
Each state could then be as open or closed to higher education innovation as they saw fit. They could even stick with their current regional accreditors if they chose to do so."

Free college for the gullible

Bernie Sanders is promising "free college" to gullible millennials who have never voted in a national election, or paid a bill, and have a lot of college debt. What would they owe if they didn't work for 5 years, paid no tuition, and just sat around smoking pot? About the same. What he isn't telling them is that the return on investment (ROI) is waaaay below the same amount invested in the stock market over their lifetime. The ROI for Harvard is about $650,000; the ROI for investing $50/week for 45 years is over a million.

Huge disagreement on this depending on what you check. But I'll stick with my premise.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2010-06-28/college-big-investment-paltry-returnbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

Smart Barbie knows how to stay out of debt

The smart Barbie knows that if she lives anywhere without income for four years and borrows for all her expenses she will have debt. If she lives at home, has a part time job, attends one of the convenient two year colleges like Columbus State for her requirements, then transfers to one of our fine universities like Ohio State University, she probably will be debt free and ready to accept a terrific job upon graduation. Even if college were "free," four years of housing, utilities, food, transportation, clothing, and entertainment wouldn't be.

Can Bernie and the Socialists offer free college?

I haven’t visited Manchester University (in Indiana) since the 1990s, and was amazed then at the buildings (not necessarily growth) especially in sports facilities and library, but now when I look at the web site it’s even more so. I was thinking this morning that the “new women’s dorm” where I didn’t live (I was in the old dorm--Oakwood), would now be about 60 years old if it hasn’t be razed, and looking back, that in 1958 when I was a student, a comparable building would have been late 1890s! 

Every college seems to have a bad case of Keeping up with the Jones’s to attract students with first class amenities. It's breathtaking when I walk across the campus at Ohio State--especially the sports and recreation facilities. Plus, there’s been huge growth in non-academic staff and departments to keep up with federal regulations on diversity/gender, health, testing, psychological development, etc. and to spend the ever growing federal aid to education. 

I know students personally who have graduated with no debt, and that’s quite possible in Ohio which has an incredible system of 2 year and technical colleges within driving distance of everyone. Now with online, that may not be such an issue. Living at home, working part time and being selective about important courses, a student can have a debt free education (undergrad) in Ohio thanks to the foresight of Governor Rhodes back in the 1960s-1970s. In European countries we’ve visited their  “free” colleges, but their testing system very early eliminates many children (usual, poorer working class) from the pool, so even if “free” it’s definitely not “fair.”

My college expenses in 1957-58 and 1958-59 were right around $1,000, although I did have occasional part time jobs at the schools. I had saved enough for my freshman year by working while in high school. I doubt anyone could do that today. My father would have considered it an insult if a child of his needed a government loan. Very different today. But he also considered a married daughter the responsibility of someone else, and for my senior year (I was married), I borrowed money from him for tuition. 

A few years ago I checked and Manchester was about $30,000 a year (although with aid and scholarships it’s difficult to know true cost, just like health insurance). University of Illinois from which I got my B.A. and MLS was higher (was the same back in the 50s), but probably in $35,000 range. 

Whether talking education or poverty or environment, progressives/socialists/Democrats push government programs, then years later sound the alarm that they aren't working or are too expensive, blame the situation on the Republicans for not giving them more money to throw at failing programs, when in fact, they created the situation (although Republicans always go along and renew the funding).  So it is with soaring education costs.  They are reaping what they have sown, and found it bitter or poisonous. 

A note of history: "Mount Morris College in Mount Morris, Illinois [where I grew up and both my parents and grandparents met], merged with Manchester College in 1932. Founded as a Methodist seminary in 1839, Mount Morris had been purchased by representatives of the Church of the Brethren in 1879 and operated under the name of the Rock River Seminary and College Institute until 1884, when the name was changed to Mount Morris College. The merger of Mount Morris College and Manchester College came about when the Church of the Brethren decided its educational program would be strengthened by pooling its resources in a smaller number of colleges [and after MMC suffered a terrible fire on Easter Sunday 1931]" from Manchester's website.

A few political thoughts for my angry, atheist troll

I think I know how Bernie wins with young people. About 5 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, I was looking through a history encyclopedia in the public library. Slick, new, great publisher. History had already been revised, and of course, academe is very liberal. As I recall, there was no entry for "USSR." There was a x-ref to WWII, I suppose because USSR was our ally in the 1940s. Nothing about millions of starving Ukrainians, or 5 year economic plans that always failed, or city people sent to the countryside for political mistakes, or the 1930s trials and executions of loyal Communists, or empty shelves in government run stores.

Ilya Somin who writes for Washington Post, mentioned today that his father (born and raised in Russia during the Communist era) had this to say about Bernie: "In his victory speech Bernie complained (or boasted) of his poor childhood, when he grew ...up in a 3.5 (what is that 0.5?) room apartment with his parents and a brother..... He should thank his "Polish" immigrant parents for that (somehow he does not want to say they were Jewish). Under socialism I grew up in one room with my parents in a communal apartment with several other unrelated families each also having one room (and this was considered luxurious)."

Yesterday I heard that most college students feeling the Bern can't tell you who their U.S. Senators are, but naturalized citizens can--they need to know this for citizenship. OK Ohio. Listen up. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown are our Senators. They faithfully send me e-mails. I've watched some of Watters' World, and they also are crickets on what socialism is, and can't name the Vice President, either.

Dennis Prager mentioned today the huge gap between single women and married women in voting. Married women are much more conservative and over 50% vote Republican, and about 1/3 of single women are conservative. And then when the married women become parents, it's even more pronounced. He was wondering why, and I assume listeners were going to call in but I was on my way to a funeral and didn't hear the comments. It does make you wonder if the downgrading and demeaning of marriage and children (even to the point of not letting them be born) by progressives is a ploy to get more votes from women. Just keep them single and dependent on the government for love.

There's an article in the Atlantic that points out something I said on this blog 9 years ago about graduating with college debt. If you borrow money for living for four-five years you'll have debt. In Sweden college is free but apartments, food, transportation and utilities aren't, so Swedish students also graduate with high debt. Someone should tell Bernie's fans who seem to be lining up for free stuff.  Since 1985 college costs have soared over 500%, a direct result of the federal government funneling money to the colleges who then raise tuition and fees.  This is much more than any other sector of the economy.  This was the government's doing, so who is screaming the loudest?  The socialists.