State students deep in hock
By John Bebow - May 1, 2008
"Education has taken the assembly line's place as our state's most vital tool," says Rob Schwartz, an idealistic young man who recently entered the Envision Michigan story contest.
If that's true, then the dryly titled "State University Summary Data" published by the Michigan House and Senate Fiscal Agencies is a quick look at what’s happening along that new assembly line.
The bottom line: lean state budgets have been very unkind to state universities in recent years.
And, students are bearing the brunt of the pain.
Some 286,600 students were enrolled in the 15 public state universities – a number that has remained virtually unchanged for the past five years.
Michigan university students took out more than $1.2 BILLION in student loans in 2006-07 alone.
The state government’s general fund contribution to university budgets in 2006-07 was $130 million below what it was four years earlier. That’s an 8 percent drop, not accounting for inflation.
Total state university faculty compensation in 2006-07 was $1.5 billion, a 15.7 percent increase over 2002-03 (not adjusted for inflation).
Total state university administrative compensation in 2006-07 was $954 million, an 18 percent increase over 2002-03 (not adjusted for inflation).
One Comment
Privatize all of Michigan's higher education and fund our citizen's based on their financial need - let the market control costs. Then add a tax incentive for employers who pay the educational loan for employees whom they hire that are Michigan citizen's who have graduated from a Michigan non-profit college or university.
No need to pump more tax dollars into our bureaucracies - invest in our citizens instead.
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