[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 72 (Friday, June 10, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
          FEDERAL SUBSIDY AND THE COLLAPSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

                                 ______


                          HON. PHILIP M. CRANE

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 10, 1994

  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I have argued for many years that an informed 
citizenry is crucial to the maintenance of liberty. Education not only 
determines which students will succeed in a competitive society, but 
which countries will thrive in a world united in the pursuit of free 
enterprise. Because proper education of tomorrow's leaders is so 
critical, I contend that there should be less involvement on the part 
of the Federal Government in education; especially in higher education.
  The Federal subsidy of higher education is yet another example of the 
liberal tax and spend tactics of a dying political agenda. Federal 
subsidies have actually caused the cost of college education in the 
United States to skyrocket. Experience should have taught us a very 
valuable lesson: Throwing money at a failing system does not solve its 
inherent problems. It is with this lesson in mind that I call the 
attention of my colleagues, to a recent editorial in the Conservative 
Chronicle by Cal Thomas entitled ``More Money Doesn't Mean Better 
Education.'' It provides an astute and thoughtful assessment of the 
latest publication by my friend Dr. George Roche, the celebrate 
president of Hillsdale College.
  For 150 years, Hillsdale has dedicated itself to the presentation of 
the ``traditional values of Western civilization, and especially those 
fundamental to a free society of responsible citizens.'' Under the 
leadership of Dr. Roche, tiny Hillsdale continues to educate its 
students in the tradition of the American Experiment of self-governance 
with the understanding that hand in hand with Federal funding comes 
Federal control. With this premise in mind Hillsdale refuses to accept 
Federal funds in any form.
  In the article, Thomas notes that in ``The Fall of the Ivory Tower: 
Government Funding, Corruption, and the Bankrupting of American Higher 
Education'' [Regnery Publishing], Dr. Roche denies that Federal subsidy 
of higher education is the solution to the current state of 
ineffectiveness in the education system. In fact, according to 
President Roche, the cost of higher education in the United States is 
rising nearly three times faster than inflation due to the Federal 
subsidies received. As a result, some schools, desperate for students, 
are discounting tuition by as much as $7,000 a year. Obviously, 
Government subsidy and control have been more damaging than anyone had 
previously thought.
  As a member of Hillsdale College's Board of Trustees, but most 
significantly as a proud alumnus, I encourage colleges and universities 
around the Nation to heed the warning set forth by Hillsdale College 
and its president. This book is a must-read for anyone who seeks to 
rectify the currently deplorable condition of America's educational 
system. I have included Mr. Thomas' article and I commend it to your 
attention.

                More Money Doesn't Mean Better Education

                            (By Cal Thomas)

       Hillsdale, MI, March 17.--American colleges and 
     universities are approaching financial, intellectual and 
     moral collapse--with profound consequences for students and 
     the nation. So concludes Hillsdale College president George 
     Roche in his new book, ``The Fall of the Ivory Tower: 
     Government Funding, Corruption, and the Bankrupting of 
     American Higher Education'' (Regnery Publishing).
       Roche refutes the argument that more money means better 
     education by noting that the budget for college-level 
     education has increased from $7 billion in the early 1960s to 
     its present $172 billion.
       ``In spite of the massive infusion of money,'' he writes, 
     ``tens of thousands of college seniors do not know when 
     Columbus sailed to the new world, who wrote the Declaration 
     of Independence or why the Civil War was fought. Businesses 
     rightly complain that they must re-educate college graduates 
     in such basic academic skills as grammar, spelling and 
     practical math.''
       Roche says that while '60s-style radicalism lingers in many 
     universities, that is not the entire reason for their 
     deplorable condition. Government subsidy and control, he 
     says, have been more damaging than anyone realizes.
       Despite massive infusions of government money, including 
     student financial assistance (which is in default, in growing 
     numbers of cases), most colleges and universities are 
     teetering on the brink of collapse. Why? ``They are 
     overcommitted to entitlements in exactly the same way as is 
     the federal government.''
       A few examples: Harvard ran a $42 million deficit in 1991-
     92 and has lost millions in speculative investments; Yale has 
     deferred $1 billion in maintenance on its physical campus; 
     the city University of New York system wants to cut $40 
     million from its budget; UCLA is closing four professional 
     schools and must cut $38 million from its budget by the end 
     of this year; the University of Maryland is getting rid of 56 
     academic departments, is reorganizing 59 others and has 
     closed one entire college.
       Abuse, fraud and mismanagement due to ``internal control 
     weaknesses'' within the federally administered Stafford Loan 
     program and currently eating up more than 54 percent of total 
     program costs. There are also record deficits in the Pell 
     Grant program, which even gives tuition money to convicted 
     criminals while they are serving time in prison.
       Roche says we are witnessing ``an S&L-style financial 
     crisis . . . (featuring) vast instability and corruption.'' 
     He faults politicians for turning their backs on the crisis 
     (as they did with the S&Ls) and pouring good money after 
     bad--for example, abandoning financial need requirements for 
     the Stafford Loans, conferring eligibility upon everyone.
       As more federal money comes into the universities, they 
     jack up their prices. Why should students care about high 
     tuition charges at Harvard when two-thirds of its 
     undergraduates receive financial aid?
       In addition to the financial crisis, there are the 
     continuing academic and moral crises. ``Colleges and 
     universities have increasingly adopted a `cattle-car' 
     approach to education,'' Roche says. ``Classes crammed with 
     500 to 1,000 students are now commonplace. And many colleges 
     have drastically reduced the number of classes they offer. 
     The University of Wisconsin has been known to close courses 
     in the first hour of registration--even for seniors in their 
     major field of concentration. At the University of Texas, 
     nearly 1,000 students were turned away from a required 
     English course.''
       Recently a student tracking the education of more than half 
     a million students at 300 institutions documented that only 
     about half were able to earn a bachelor's degree within six 
     years.
       The average professor is in class only six to nine hours a 
     week. Growing numbers of introductory classes are taught by 
     teaching assistants. Sixty percent of all college faculty 
     members have never written or edited a book and one-third 
     have never published a single journal article.
       Those that are printed include absurd works like ``The 
     Sexual Politics of Meat,'' ``The History of a Lesbian 
     Community,'' ``Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera 
     Criticism'' and, my personal favorite, ``Men, Women and 
     Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.''
       Roche contends that the moral crisis in academia makes the 
     others pale in comparison. The moral development of college 
     students has not only been abandoned, it is being 
     aggressively undermined. Many universities promote ``condom 
     weeks,'' complete with free samples and ``taste tests.'' 
     Students are not allowed to request transfers out of rooms in 
     which roommates behave in heterosexual or homosexual ways 
     that offend. This is viewed as discrimination.
       ``The University of Massachusetts Amherst,'' says Roche, 
     ``has defined pedophiles as a protected minority within its 
     nondiscrimination code. At Cornell University, resident 
     adviser job applicants have been forced to watch movies of 
     men engaged in sex in order to be evaluated for `homophobic' 
     tendencies.''
       This is a blockbuster book that ought to be read by 
     everyone who cares about American college students. It can 
     also serve as a warning to parents to select wisely and well 
     when their children go to college.

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