Resources for Higher Education: An Economist's View

Abstract

It would be convenient, in good grace, and not too difficult to make a strong case for more funds for higher education. Such a case could be made convincing by simply projecting the recent high rate of increase in higher education, with student enrolment and the cost per student continuing to rise, by proclaiming that soon virtually every high school graduate will require some higher education. This would set the stage for universal higher education with the implication that it should become more nearly free to students and would stress the necessity of supporting more quantity and more quality everywhere. Thus, it would seem that there are reasons aplenty for more federal funds, preferably without public control, and for a public package that would finance everybody. But I would serve you badly by making such a case. The problems here that await solution cannot be treated in so convenient a manner. Even the preliminary task of identifying the problems that matter is a major undertaking. I am attracted to Professor Shackle's (1966) distinction between poetry as a search for beauty and policy as a search for solutions to problems. Our search is for solutions to the problem of financing higher education. Raising money falls on the President, whereas the task of finding beauty is left to students. While bards with beards protest, poets command a low price. University administrators who are successful financiers are scarce and dear. Although poetry is an art, not all of financing is problem solving; for it seems to be true that it has many of the earmarks of an art, subject to convention and tradition, as is the art of the poet in his use of words. It