College Costs

Private education has become a private business, one with zero regulation and zero ethics.  Many of them use their endowments to invest and when times were good, many made double digit returns.  They never lowered their costs.  Now, their endowments are down...but still sky high...and in the midst of the worst downturn in history, prices are still rising.

Colleges should be given the same choice every other organization is given...you're either a for-profit or a not-for-profit organization.

If colleges want to choose to be for-profit, they may solicit absolutely no donations what-so-ever.  There should be a federal law guaranteeing that those colleges be treated as companies in every way from property tax to income tax.  And it should be illegal for students or anyone else to volunteer for them...WalMart can't have volunteers, afterall.  And they cannot unionize with other schools such as when private pharmacy schools lobbied the government collectively to make pharmacy a six year program.

If they want to be non-profit, give them the benefits.  They can have their donations, they can have their tax breaks or reprieves.  But here's the list of regulations.

• No corporate donations...prevent the Harvard Medical/Pfizer embarrassment
• 2% per year limit on tuition hikes
• Strict rent control on student living space without kitchens & private bathrooms...dorms are meant to provide students with cheap housing, not crappy housing for an arm and a leg
• Requirement that 99% of each student's tuition be spent to directly benefit that student (that means no new buildings that they won't see completed before graduation)...only 1% left for Dean/Presidential salaries...none for endowments
• Ban on the practice of flat tuition rates so students don't pay rates meant for 17 credits when they only take 14 credits
• Ban on endowment investments not protected by the FDIC and requirement that donations be spent at a rate of 75% per year almost 100% of that to benefit students.
• Ban on professors holding second jobs in related fields such as Harvard medical professors holding jobs with drug companies
• Require full access for students to all salaries from janitors to the President
• End mathematical dishonesty such as saying the student to faculty ratio is 30 to 1 and counting security guards and janitors as faculty
• Absolutely no unionization of colleges...as mentioned above
• Pass any additional regulations required to ensure all colleges resume being educational institutions

This would legally and constitutionally pressure colleges to choose the non-profit option.  Choosing to be for-profit would be the same as choosing to be a company, zero donations and zero volunteers.  Choosing to be non-profit would be agreeing to a set of regulations that would 1) slow tuition growth, 2) ensure students' tuition benefits them and 3) provide transparency for current and prospective students.

Moreover, I believe that Collegeboard should be bought out and made part of the Health & Education Department.  And all colleges that choose to be non-profit must use the Education Dept's test (SATs).  The price of an SAT test and AP tests would become so low that it would begin to end the correlation between money and score.