Valentine: The Cost of Higher Education

CaptainKUHigher education is so expensive…

Our leaders all express concern over student debt. Condoleezza Rice said access to education is, ”the civil rights struggle of our day.” President Obama says we should tax “The Rich” to pay for Community College for the poor.

But has anybody bothered to ask the institutions of higher learning to explain their expenditures?

Earlier this week, Kansas University spokeswoman Errin Barcomb-Peterson announced that a seven-passenger Cessna Citation CJ4 was delivered Dec. 23 and has already been used on some school trips.

The exact price of the plane was not announced, but the purchase came from a grant that could not exceed $8.1 million. Keep in mind, this is the purchase price, not the use and maintenance costs.

cj4-1It replaced a jet that was only worth about $2-3million.

It was stated that the planes are used for the University of Kansas Medical Center‘s medical outreach program for rural Kansas, administrators’ travel and athletic recruiting trips. It was not stated which of these uses took priority over the others or how a jet lands in small airports in rural areas.

For those of you that enjoy math, $8million would pay for nearly 2,000 semesters of tuition at Kansas University on the Lawrence campus.

Before we raise taxes or tuition, we might want to review expenses. Perhaps the cost of education could be lowered without lowering actual education.

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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7 Responses to Valentine: The Cost of Higher Education

  1. chuck says:

    Art work is, as always really cool.

    +1 on the article.

  2. Libertarian says:

    Nice write, Valentine. You bring up a great point.

    Reminds me of a cartoon I saw recently. A fellow walks into the Dean’s office with his degree in his hand and says, “I’d like to return this. It didn’t work.”

  3. Jack Springer says:

    How many billions of dollars does KU and other universities have in their endowment foundations? Why not use this money to lower the cost while cutting back on all the excesses at universities.

    • hahhararley says:

      ku is dying a slow death.
      thanks brownie and the student loan bubble!
      BUT THERE IS GREAT NEWS COMING FROM LAWRENCE…THE
      PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS PLANNED A MAJOR
      SPEECH AT THE UNIVERSITY. INTEREST HAS BEEN HUGE FOR
      TICKETS.
      OBAMA IS ENJOYING THE FRUITS OF FIGHTING REPUB WHO
      BLOCKED EVERYTHING HE WANTED TO DO.
      NOW THAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE TO LEAD WITH LEGISLATION
      THEY WILL BRING OUT THEIR OLD/WORN OUT/BROKEN
      IDEAS THAT DIDN’T WORK WITH BUSH FOR 8 YEARS.
      OBAMA SHOULD BE AT THE 54 PER CENT APPROVAL RATE
      AT THE END OF HIS TERM.
      PEOPLE ARE SEEING THE REAL OBAMA WHO HAD TO PUT UP
      WITH SUCH FOOLS LIKE RUBIO/MTICH THE TURTLE..AND THE
      REST OF THE REPBULICANS WHO HAVE NO IDEAS HOW TO
      RUN A NATION.
      AND REMEMBER THIS…OBAMAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROGRAM
      SAVES THE GOVERNMENT ALMOST SEVEN BILLION A YEAR….
      WHEN YOU ADD ALL THE LOANS…THE DEFAULTS..THE MONEY
      TO SERVICE THOSE LOANS….I MEAN ISN’T THAT WHAT RIGHT
      WING NUT CASES LIKE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR…IMPROVED PROGRAMS WITH FEWER COSTS????????????????????

    • admin says:

      I was looking over the specs on that plane and it is rather excessive…

      Seems they could have punched a turbo prop plane for probably a fraction of the cost or certainly something more about function than form. Given that they’re a public institution and all.

  4. hahhararley says:

    itsthe cost of keeping bill self….he wanted dorm rooms…he got em
    he wanted a new jet…he got it..
    while ku is ready to undergo some serious cost slashes they have to
    keep bill self or the next big school will give him what he wants.
    think t bone…he’d give self anything to get him down on ok state.
    and without bball ku is on life support.
    ku and k state are problems while MU has 250 million sitting in
    an account to fix up their athletic facilities.
    take that big 8…big 12…BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM
    miz zou….sec..
    and yes boys its all about the dineros.

  5. the dude says:

    I don’t see any community colleges with Lear jets Valentine. You are kinda reaching here.

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