Realities of life
Saturday, July 19, 2003
Random Thoughts
I've been really upset for the past month or so that the Oklahoma state legislature decided to abdicate their responsibility to control costs at the state universities. Until this year, the legislature had a cap on tuition raises. The Regents, the actual people "responsible" for things like that (appointed by the governor for fixed terms) could not raise tuition more than 7% each year. This year, the legislature, responding to powerful persuasion from a former governor of Oklahoma (who also happens to be a former United States Senator and president of the University of Oklahoma), decided to lift that cap, allowing the Regents to raise tuition to an average of the Big 12 universities. He suggested early on that it would be in the range of 10% and later modified that to 12% to 15%. I won't even discuss the stupidity of that apples-and-oranges comparison. Been there. Done that.
I'm a big fan of capitalism and thus I am generally opposed to price controls, but when it comes to monopolies (telephone, electricity, cable, natural gas) I tend to think that some governmental control is not a bad idea. State-run education is a monopoly. It receives money from the state, just like the Oklahoma State Tax Commission (though, there is a difference in that the Tax Commission receives all it's money from the state, whereas the universities receive monies from students and grants and other places). Since the state universities receive money from the state, they should be regulated (for lack of a better word) by the state.
Generally price caps, whether it's rent-control or control over the price of gasoline, tend to reduce the supply drastically. Supply and demand are not simply capitalistic ideas, they're they way people function. If you offered me $5000 to buy my Apple Pismo laptop computer I might hesitate a moment or two, but I'd probably be trying to find five or six more for you to buy at that price. If, on the other hand, you offered to buy it for $1000, I'd say, "No thank you." If you said you'd give me $300 for it, I'd either be angry or laugh in your face. That's the way people function.
So now the Regents have raised tuition at Oklahoma State University by 24% and at the University of Oklahoma by 39%. The other day it dawned on me one more reason I'm so exercised about this. I'm having a difficult enough time paying for an education for my son as it is, but the other day I remembered that in 1934, my father had won a state road department engineering scholarship to Florida State University. With the onslaught of the Great Depression, all such scholarships were cut, and my father was unable to attend FSU, despite all kinds of string-pulling and pleading. He ended up on the Orlando police department as a radio officer, since the department was just getting into communicating with their cars. Was he cheated out of a good living? No. He ended up going into business in a new field--neon-signs, and in 1960 was making $30,000 a year. That might not seem like much in today's superheated economy, but it was big bucks in 1960. Still, I feel (intentionally chosen word instead of "think") that he was cheated of an opportunity. He was probably the brightest man I've ever known, with a breadth and depth of knowledge that almost defies description. Yet he never had a college degree, and when I went to college, I never even considered the cost of where I applied, since no constraints were ever expressed to me. My son is just as bright in some of the same ways, and he has an amazing ability to construct logic and draw logical conclusions from complexities I still ponder. I can recall his explanations of things when he was in grade school, and I still marvel. I am also thankful, but I don't want him to get the short end of the stick.
The irony is, one major reason I moved to Oklahoma is that where I was in Ohio the church had a parsonage. I would never have had a home of my own or equity. I knew that. I knew that I could never pay for my son's college education there. Sigh.
I've been really upset for the past month or so that the Oklahoma state legislature decided to abdicate their responsibility to control costs at the state universities. Until this year, the legislature had a cap on tuition raises. The Regents, the actual people "responsible" for things like that (appointed by the governor for fixed terms) could not raise tuition more than 7% each year. This year, the legislature, responding to powerful persuasion from a former governor of Oklahoma (who also happens to be a former United States Senator and president of the University of Oklahoma), decided to lift that cap, allowing the Regents to raise tuition to an average of the Big 12 universities. He suggested early on that it would be in the range of 10% and later modified that to 12% to 15%. I won't even discuss the stupidity of that apples-and-oranges comparison. Been there. Done that.
I'm a big fan of capitalism and thus I am generally opposed to price controls, but when it comes to monopolies (telephone, electricity, cable, natural gas) I tend to think that some governmental control is not a bad idea. State-run education is a monopoly. It receives money from the state, just like the Oklahoma State Tax Commission (though, there is a difference in that the Tax Commission receives all it's money from the state, whereas the universities receive monies from students and grants and other places). Since the state universities receive money from the state, they should be regulated (for lack of a better word) by the state.
Generally price caps, whether it's rent-control or control over the price of gasoline, tend to reduce the supply drastically. Supply and demand are not simply capitalistic ideas, they're they way people function. If you offered me $5000 to buy my Apple Pismo laptop computer I might hesitate a moment or two, but I'd probably be trying to find five or six more for you to buy at that price. If, on the other hand, you offered to buy it for $1000, I'd say, "No thank you." If you said you'd give me $300 for it, I'd either be angry or laugh in your face. That's the way people function.
So now the Regents have raised tuition at Oklahoma State University by 24% and at the University of Oklahoma by 39%. The other day it dawned on me one more reason I'm so exercised about this. I'm having a difficult enough time paying for an education for my son as it is, but the other day I remembered that in 1934, my father had won a state road department engineering scholarship to Florida State University. With the onslaught of the Great Depression, all such scholarships were cut, and my father was unable to attend FSU, despite all kinds of string-pulling and pleading. He ended up on the Orlando police department as a radio officer, since the department was just getting into communicating with their cars. Was he cheated out of a good living? No. He ended up going into business in a new field--neon-signs, and in 1960 was making $30,000 a year. That might not seem like much in today's superheated economy, but it was big bucks in 1960. Still, I feel (intentionally chosen word instead of "think") that he was cheated of an opportunity. He was probably the brightest man I've ever known, with a breadth and depth of knowledge that almost defies description. Yet he never had a college degree, and when I went to college, I never even considered the cost of where I applied, since no constraints were ever expressed to me. My son is just as bright in some of the same ways, and he has an amazing ability to construct logic and draw logical conclusions from complexities I still ponder. I can recall his explanations of things when he was in grade school, and I still marvel. I am also thankful, but I don't want him to get the short end of the stick.
The irony is, one major reason I moved to Oklahoma is that where I was in Ohio the church had a parsonage. I would never have had a home of my own or equity. I knew that. I knew that I could never pay for my son's college education there. Sigh.
