Academic administrative bloat: A problem, not THE problem

George Leef and Todd Zywicki point out that colleges (and lower schools) have experienced a spectacular surge in the number of 'useless' mouths.  But this scandal is nothing more than a symptom of a much greater underlying disorder.  A bit of history:

Before Gutenberg general information, high entertainment and education were all the province of the Rich.  With the advent of the book and then the phonograph, the costs of these forms of information fell dramatically.  Indeed, in the 1600s entities called libraries and schools popped up everywhere to take advantage of economies of scale by focusing scholars and books in a single location where their relatively high cost could be spread over many students.

Today the marginal cost of general information and quality entertainment are effectively zero.  The cost of education, by contrast is soaring to ludicrous heights, driven by its addiction to state subsidies that enable it to cling grimly to 16th century technologies that barely exist outside of the bloated, backward academy.  Administrative bloat is no more than the latest metastasizing malignancy of a raging cancer on the body politic that is piling faux gothic pile on top of pedagogical farce on top of union rule.

It’s all going to come crashing down on their heads.   And here I sit with my bag of popcorn waiting for the show.