This article by Bob Meister, examines the limitations of tuition (higher personal debt) as a mode of funding public university systems and, also, the widespread resistance to any tax increase by citizens with falling or stagnant income and growing burdens of debt.
It argues that the questions of debt servitude and tax resistance must be considered together if public universities are to regain taxpayer support and become, once again, drivers of greater economic and social equality.
[…] A recent article by Bob Meister sets out how university leaders sought to replace public funding by leveraging income from students. Their argument was similar to that made by Universities UK, that it would enable public universities to compete with private universities. This strategy was predicated on the view that this could be done alongside teaching efficiencies (increased enrolments, use of casualised staff, etc) and that the additional income could be used to augment falling research budgets. […]
[…] University leaders were, of course, both observers of this bubble and participants in it” (Debt and Taxes: Can the Financial Industry Save Public Universities? Privatization Is Now the Proble…). Are you going to participate in the expansion and consolidation of the student debt bubble or […]
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