Privatization

The reason that there needs to be more political attention is because of the growing privatization in America. Colleges love privatization due to the fact that they are getting more and more money. But the problem is, according to the Frontline episode on the higher education bubble, Colleges generally spend an average of 20%-25% on advertising and name outing methods while they only spend 10%-12% on instruction. Without a call for change things will only increase in their extremities. Advertising will increase and instruction will continue to decrease. It's sad that universities can get away with such a thing with out being reprimanded for their actions. The victim in this whole scenario is the students and it is for that reason that the students need to  band together and demand attention from the politicians.

Since Blog#1 my topic has change. I have now found my interest in the question "Why hasn't college become  more of a political issue?" With the higher education bubble growing, in the instance that things continue along their current route it is inevitable for it to bust. And in the instance that it were to bust the United States would feel economic repercussions similar to those felt during the housing crisis. While I was writing our first assignment I discussed possible solutions to the impeding higher education crisis and working through congress came up as a possible solution. But then with the help of my professor I realized how little attention this IMPEDING CRISIS is getting from our law makers. Perhaps because it is yet to be a serious issue with the public itself. The average person is unaware of the higher education bubble and that can be seen in the fact that more and more people are joining this bubble every year!

All my online searches told me was that it honestly doesn't seem like anyone, other than Rick Perry (Governor of Texas) is taking higher education reform seriously.Barack Obama's most recent state of the union address alluded that he has higher education in his plans for this term so hopefully something will get done. Obama was quoted on February 20th saying, “Taxpayers can’t keep on subsidizing higher and higher and higher costs for higher education,” Obama said. “Colleges must do their part to keep costs down, and it’s our job to make sure that they do.” Obama's supreme goal is to ensure that all students can afford a college education. 

There many articles and books that discussing a faltering higher education and in addition a means as to which the United States can go about Higher Education reform.  For example http://www.citizensleague.org/what/policy/highered/index.php discussed higher education reform and the possibilities of it. There are also great books that discuss the problems and possible solutions of higher education. One of them is titled 

Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids---and What We Can Do About It.  

While searching I came upon some ideas for my research. I believe that I will focus on the current attention on higher education reform, what more can be done to create more attention and consequently more action and in addition, I will speculate why perhaps there is not as much attention on the topic and what can be done to reverse that. 

Potential Topic

At the moment I think I want my topic to ask the question of, Is it possible for a research university to excel in research while still holding on to it's mission as a public university? I've been reading a few articles about Rick Perry and his attempts to get his states universities to hold on to their missions of enriching the state but the administrators of those universities say he is doing it by sacrificing their elite status and lowering their standards. I would like to know if a university can truly excel while staying true to it's state.