from Katherine Long at the Seattle Times:

Why straight-A’s may not get you into UW this year

In the face of continuing state budget cuts, academic leaders at the University of Washington in February made a painful decision to cut the number of Washington students the school will admit this fall and increase the number of out-of-state and international students, who pay nearly three times as much in tuition and fees.

comment by Jim Gregiry on AAUP listserv: “Under the title “A More Progressive Tuition Policy Please?” Fridley also analyzes the subsidy that goes to students from the state’s wealthiest families and makes the case for a high tuition, high financial aid model. Included in the short piece is this chart prepared by Bill Zumeta (Evans School) showing the maldistribution of college degrees since the 1980s. In these nationwide data, only a small fraction of young people from poor and middle income families have been earning BA degrees, while graduation rates have soared past 70% for upper income young people. This is worth reading.Fridley also analyzes the subsidy that goes to students from the state’s wealthiest families and makes the case for a high tuition, high financial aid model. Included in the short piece is this chart prepared by Bill Zumeta (Evans School) showing the maldistribution of college degrees since the 1980s. In these nationwide data, only a small fraction of young people from poor and middle income families have been earning BA degrees, while graduation rates have soared past 70% for upper income young people. This is worth reading.” CLICK image if you have a UW ID.

Ed.  This was to be expected.  Privatization of all state higher ed is happening nationwide. We are moving toward a Victorian England, class based model of education  with all too little attention from a liberal community faced with efforts to delegitimize unions and cut way the safety net created in the depression.

There is, moreover, a huge difference between the Roosevelt response to 1929 and the Obama response to 2009.  Roosevelt’s efforts were not merely alleviative.   His administration made huge strides in the nation’s infrastructure that still drive our economy.  Cuts like these will block opportunity for American youth, the very opportunity that realized not just individual success but the emergence of America as the world’s most productive society.  See today’s post about China overtaking the US in scientific publications.

The sentiments of many UW faculty, however, are toward a model of high tuition.  This is well stated by Jim Fridley, the UW faculty lobbyist, on the Faculty Senate Blog (cli9ck image ot the right if you have access).

While I sympathize with Dr. Fridley’s comments, I think he is naive. Financing the UW by raising tuition will inevitably mean that we become  … in effect if not in word .. a private school.  If anything, this model is like the “voucher model” for K-12.  Vouchers do not open opportunities in pubic school, rather they subsidize those schools so that they can raise tuition. The idea that the composition of Lakeside or the Shoreline Christian School, will become more inclusive because of subsidized tuition is, in my opinion, absurd.