McKenna is already talking about getting the money for education from state workers. Sound familiar? In the meantime, Bill Gates says he's not being taxed enough.

Disagree, in part. Tuitions are rising because of administrative costs (*cough* vice provost of the dean of administration's salary *cough*). While legislatures (I would hope) should put more money into education, it would be nice if they made that money go towards actual education, and not more administrators.

(Can you tell I'm one of those educators?)

This is why I have called for President Obama to reduce all Federal taxes to a maximum of 5% on people making less than $250,000.

This would allow more money to put into the community, city and state levels for things like education.

Why isn't SLOG pushing for reduced Federal tax for people making less than $250,000 ?

@2, I have friends who teach at community colleges, and I don't doubt them when they complain about academic cuts in the face of bloated administrations. But in fact the stats show that WA's public college & university system has kept spending per student rather flat in recent years, while tuition has skyrocketed. We've simply been shifting the the cost from taxpayers to students.

Good call, Goldy! The Seattle Times are such hypocritical blowhards... We're much better than that!

The Atlantic's been running an excellent series on the impact of college sports on its athletes, students, and institutions. Turns out that football is a losing proposition for a great majority of "big-time" FBS schools. So schools give short shrift to academics to shore up languishing athletic departments, even the "profitable" ones.

Latest article here.

"The Real Crisis in College Sports: It's Wasted Money, Not Wasted Students"

Goldy, it looks to me that Obama's remarks are neither "odd" or "misguided", but in agreement with your opinion on where the responsibility for solving the situation resides.

I do wonder if federal government student loans are skewing the economics. If students could get loans for skyrocketing tuitions, it might be curbing some of the $50k/yr for undergrad programs.

@6, wow. Schools losing millions on football programs should be front page news. If football coaches are the top paid state workers, their programs had better be bringing in millions for their schools. The UW should not be allowed to pay Sarkisian millions out of tuition and/or fix Husky Stadium when they could play at the Clink.