An article today charges that Massachusetts is raising tuition at state colleges while decreasing public grants at a rate higher than another state in New England. What the article fails to tell us is whether the dollar amounts are higher. Maybe the cost of tuition was lower, maybe the grants were higher than our neighbors. We’ll never know unless they tell us.
So why do the costs rise so much anyway? Well, where’s the money going? Billy Bulger, the chancellor of the state higher education system, has some plush offices in downtown Boston. Professors don’t seem to be starving. In fact, there are plenty of patronage jobs there as well. And individual fraud pays well. I know a guy out on permanent disability from his state college job; bad back. Doesn’t seem that it prevents him from buying himself a $2,000 mountain bike. He lets his wife mow the front lawn so that people at college don’t see him working, but he mows his back lawn himself. This is the type of fraud that hurts all of us.
So why is Massachusetts in such a bad way? One simple word: corruption. The question is whether anyone has the political will and capital to undo the corruption so that everyone can benefit. Even college students getting a cheap(er) education on the taxpayer dime.
