Here’s a dirty little secret President Biden doesn’t mention when talking about his myriad student “loan” giveaways: Your tax dollars are being used to fund things like multimillion-dollar Italian monasteries and lounges for students to play video games.
Those are just some of the takeaways from a Wall Street Journal investigation into the finances of each state’s flagship public universities. The reporting shows a trend that, while not surprising, should still shock hard-working taxpayers. Institutions have raised tuition astronomically, in many cases frittering away funds on expenses unrelated to their core educational mission. And students don’t just end up paying more for an education of questionable quality — federal loan bailouts mean all taxpayers do too.
Spending Growth Exceeds Enrollment Growth
The investigation, conducted via a series of public records requests at the 50 state flagship universities, found massive increases in spending over the past two decades. Over that time frame, spending at the median university rose by 38 percent, while enrollment grew by only 21 percent.
Some might argue that the sizable growth in tuition over that time came because of cutbacks in state aid. Indeed, many states did reduce taxpayer spending on higher education in the years following the Great Recession.
But the Journal analysis found that “for every $1 lost in state support … the median school increased tuition and fee revenue by $2.40.” In other words, those tuition increases weren’t about backfilling cuts in state subsidies — they were about gouging students to fund wasteful projects.
