Letters to the Editor
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‘Poor Marks For College Tuition Pricing’
Rich Vedder and Bryan O’Keefe correctly point out that although the average increase in tuition at four-year state universities rose somewhat less last year than the previous year, it still increased substantially more than the rate of inflation [Op-ed, “Poor Marks For College Tuition Pricing,” October 31, 2006]. In fact, the cost of college has been rising faster than inflation for many years.
There is lots of hand-wringing over the affordability problem, with the higher education establishment usually looking to government and saying, “You’ve just got to do something to make college more affordable.” As Mr. Vedder argues in his book “Going Broke by Degree,” very few institutions of higher education have any incentive to keep costs down and naturally turn to government to subsidize students so more of them can attend. Hardly ever do we see college administrators taking serious steps to get more educational value for each dollar spent. Consequently, we find the country spending more and more on higher education, but students on the whole seem to learn less than they did 30, 40, 50 years ago.
GEORGE LEEF
Vice President for Research
John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
Raleigh, N.C.
‘Judt and the Poles’
In regard to “Judt and the Poles,” [Editorial, October 23, 2006], noting “the war against the Jews … in the last century rages yet today,” you allude to “the Polish people’s determination, this time around, to be on the right side of that war.” But wasn’t Poland, allied with Britain and America, on the right side of the last war?
CHARLES CHOTKOWSKI
Fairfield, CT
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