Category Archives: Universities

How did this happen?

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NJ Governor Chris Christie

I usually don’t think much of Chris Christie. He isn’t a conservative and isn’t much of a ‘Pub, either. But today, he uttered a statement that I can agree upon. Finally!

“Some colleges are drunk on cash and embarking on crazy spending binges, just because they know they can get huge revenues from tuition.” — WSJ

In this case, Christie is right. College tuition is caught in a feed back loop. Colleges charge thousands of dollars for tuition, far beyond the means of most families. The students then file for student loans and get them. The student loans pays for the tuition. The colleges and universities, realizing they have a cash cow available in the form of government sponsored student loans, feel no restraint on raising tuition again each year.

In the mid-’60s when my wife and I went to college, we both had a teaching scholarship. Southern Illinois University, at that time, was on the quarter system, Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer quarters. My tuition costs—which included text book rental, $112 for an in-state resident. The scholarship paid for all of that except for a $12 Student Activity fee. I paid more for room and board, $298 per quarter, than I did for tuition. I also worked 40 hours/week, part-time for the university for the grand sum of $0.95 per hour. I went to school full-time and then worked 40 hours for those expenses not covered by tuition nor dorm.

Tuition for today’s colleges and universities should be investigated for RICO violations because today’s tuition is a racket.

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You’ve heard, no doubt, that St. Louis and Kansas City want to raise the minimum wage. Regardless of all the nonsense about a ‘living wage’ that such entry level jobs were never meant to fulfill, there are other reason why these metro areas want the pay increase—more money in the city coffers.

Higher minimum wage would increase city’s tax revenues, too

Letter-to-the-Editor, June 12, 2015

Mayor Francis Slay of St. Louis is asking the Board of Aldermen to pass legislation mandating a near doubling of the current minimum wage from $7.65 to $15 an hour for certain businesses operating in the city by 2020 (“Slay seeks to increase minimum wage in city,” June 3). Naturally, this will undoubtedly appeal to all those who buy into this demagogic charade of equality and “fairness” by politicians and their followers of the Left.

But aside from undeniable economic facts, that prices will go up and seniors on fixed income will be hurt, there is something else that will result that I have not heard being talked about.

Consider, when you virtually double the current minimum wage, can you guess what benefits the city of St. Louis will receive? If you said that with higher wages comes higher tax revenue from the city earnings tax along with increased payroll tax revenue that will go to the state of Missouri, then go to the head of the class. If you add that increase wages mean higher sales taxes, you are clearly a summa cum laude candidate.

What Sleight-of-Hand Slay is attempting to do without saying so is to generate additional revenue while seeking to avoid being accused of raising taxes. Wonder if anyone else has caught on to this?

In the case of Kansas City there is an additional tax, the 1% (or is it higher now?) city income tax. If the minimum wage is increased, the city will get more revenue from its income tax.

When you get to the bottom line, it’s always about collecting more taxes. Involuntary taxation is nothing more than theft by other means.

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Obamacare affects the liberal elite, too.

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I had almost given up finding a topic for today when I came across the article below. Now that Obamacare is about to be enforced, in January, supposedly, the real effects are being felt across the country. People are losing their employer sponsored and private healthcare in the hundreds of thousands. Three hundred thousand in Florida alone.

One group that is also being impacted is…university professors. My wife is a professor at a small college, but she has never had healthcare through that institution anyway. Some tenured professors are being affected but the majority of university professors are adjunct professors. They are the temps, the contract workers who teach those classes that no full-time, tenured professor wants to teach.

These adjunct professors are paid based on the credit hours of the courses they teach. The amount varies. Suffice to say, they are not on salary and receive few benefits of tenured professors. They have now lost one of those few benefits—healthcare.

Here’s how Obamacare makes life hell for college profs

11:06 PM 10/27/2013

Universities are cutting back on adjunct professors’ work hours to comply with Obamacare–an unfortunate wake up call for some liberal academics who supported the law.

“I understand that colleges don’t have money to throw around and there’s a larger issue here, but it is frustrating to feel like, that in the face of this legislation designed to help people, that instead it’s hurting people,” said Amy Poff, an adjunct professor who teaches art classes at various Maryland colleges, in a statement to The Baltimore Sun.

Under the president’s health care law, employees who work 30 hours each week are eligible for health benefits. Since many adjunct professors teach enough classes to meet that bar, college administrators must choose between paying extra healthcare costs or cutting back adjunct work hours.

For many universities–both public and private–the decision is an easy one: punish the adjuncts.

“Am I saying it’s the right thing to do? No,” said Robert Conlon, senior vice president at Sibson Consulting, a firm that advises colleges on employment decisions, in a statement to Inside Higher Ed. “But is it the logical thing to do? Yes.”

Some 48 percent of universities–including 49 percent of public universities–have decided to place limitations on the number of hours adjunct professors can work, according to a survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed.

Adjuncts are not the only academics facing new burdens under Obamacare. Some universities are considering imposing fines on employees who smoke, or fail to get regular checkups.

Pennsylvania State University originally proposed a fine of $100 on employees who refused to submit to a battery of invasive, physical tests or answer questionnaires about their lifestyles and health habits. The policy was changed after faculty revolted; instead, those who take the test will earn a small cash reward.

Still, most university human resources officers believe Penn State’s penalizing approach was the right one, and colleges may increasingly move in that direction as Obamacare is implemented.

Thanks to Obamacare, more and more liberal professors are being kicked out of their Ivory Towers into the real world—and that is a good thing! Tenure has destroyed higher education.

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