Blue Nation Review - ‘Education is Secondary’ for Some Colleges, Says Congressman

Insurmountable student loan debt has been making headlines in recent years, but it’s not news to Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN). While a state senator in Tennessee, Cohen learned of the plight of a former intern who was in burdened with student loan debt. “I saw that and realized how unfair it was,” Cohen told Blue Nation Review. “It was stifling her life and her advancement.”

Cohen was one of the main architects of the Hope Lottery Scholarship, which has raised over $2 billion to help Tennessee students pay for college since it began in 2003.

Such a program at a national level is not possible, and even if it were it would do little to solve the problem of exorbitant tuition and fees. There are myriad reasons why college is so expensive, and Cohen has a good handle on what they are.

“Reducing the cost of college is going to be very, very difficult,” he said. “College costs have gone up and up, and it’s really just totally out of hand. I think the salaries of the presidents have gotten outrageous.”

Cohen did not spare his alma mater, Vanderbilt, from criticism. “We have one of the most highly compensated chancellors in the country,” he said. “The chancellor right now is an outstanding chancellor. The people prior to him were OK, some of them were better, but they got the salary to outrageous levels.”

Cohen argued, as others have, that chancellors’ primary mission is no longer education. “Chancellors have become fundraisers. So you get the guy that’s the best schmoozer and get those alums to write those checks. They say they’re worth (a high salary) because they’ve brought in this much money,” Cohen said. “Education is a secondary thing to some presidents, the primary thing seems to be fundraising.”

Given the amount of money they’re raising, one might expect that to go into the classroom. But in many cases it doesn’t. It often goes towards attracting students, especially ones near the top of the economic tier—ones that don’t need financial aid.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the arms race of sorts being waged in student housing. The days of a desk, a bed, and an outlet in the dorm are long gone. In an effort to compete, schools offer tanning beds, steam rooms, big-screen televisions, jacuzzis, and maid service, among other amenities.

“(Universities) spend the money on things that, I don’t know how necessary they are. They’re not necessarily going in the classroom,” Cohen said. “(Presidents) are building monuments to themselves or monuments that they can name for some alum who gave them the money.”

Cohen said some university leaders have lost sight of why they got into education in the first place. “The love of teaching becomes secondary to the salary. It’s killing what they supposedly love.”

Long characterized as the ladder to the middle class, education has become too expensive for the poor, said Cohen.

"No Easy Answers"

As Cohen said, getting universities to lower costs is a monumental challenge. President Obama has taken steps to help students pay back the debt, but that’s merely chipped the trillion dollar stone that is student debt.

When Congress was under Democratic control, Cohen noted, more money was provided for Pell Grants, which are designed to help those demonstrating financial need.

Some corners have called on the government to do more—unlikely, given that there’s Republican-controlled Congress—but it already has.

Writing in The Atlantic, Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado, said:

The federal tax code has been amended in ways that benefit colleges and universities. According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation’s most recent estimates of federal tax expenditures, the IRS is currently redistributing approximately $45.7 billion annually in tax revenue in ways that directly and indirectly support American higher education. (This represents a 675 percent increase in such spending since 1990.) These subsidies can come in the form of tax credits or other types of favorable tax treatment—excluding certain forms of income from taxation or creating special deductions, for example.

Campos noted that those tax credits help families, but they double as subsidies for colleges, too.

It’s tempting to demand the government make revisions to the tax code that benefit higher education less. But if it did, would that change how colleges operate? It’s hard to believe colleges would lower tuition and fees with less government funds coming their way.

Politically, higher education is a good issue for Democrats. Republican governors and, not coincidentally, presidential candidates like Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana seem bent on destroying their state’s higher education systems. But simply pointing this out is not enough. Cohen said the debt crisis must be dealt with, calling it, “the next housing crisis.” And the amount of debt is essentially freezing the next generation in place.

Still there have been signs of hope. President Obama has proposed making community college free for two years—and the Republicans quickly wondered how this would be paid for. One might ask the same question about student debt.

Some colleges are stepping up. Stanford publicized its effort to make its education tuition-free for students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year. Other universities, like the University of Maryland and Georgia Tech, are making an effort to position themselves as viable alternatives to more expensive schools.

As the race to occupy the White House heats up, candidates should expect to hear more questions about college, which will likely be followed by a demand for real solutions — not just talking points.