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Wow, I had no idea Latinos, African Americans were tripping over themselves to vote for him!

Which of course explains away why a steadily increasing number of incoming college freshman have to take remedial courses. Here's a quote from http://www.highereducation.org... for you.

"he California State University (CSU), a large public university system, for many years has applied placement or readiness standards in reading, writing, and mathematics that are linked to first-year college coursework. All first-time students at all 23 CSU campuses must meet these standards, principally through performance on a common statewide placement examination. Despite systemwide admissions policy that requires a college-preparatory curriculum and a grade point average in high school of B or higher, 68% of the 50,000 entering freshmen at CSU campuses require remediation in English language arts, or math, or both."

Of-course I completely forgot to mention all of the service prices that are rising, from accounting, to lawyers, to court fees, to mailing, to education, to car repair, etc.

Did I forget to mention coffee and coffee shops?

Obviously water

They will talk about drought and bandits and weather and climate and every single excuse under the Sun except for the actual real cause of this nonsense: inflation.

There have not been any significant cuts in funding at any level. The issue is that the funding has not risen as fast as college expenditures so that a much smaller percentage of the cost is born by students in the form of tuition. See this link for more details (http://www.highereducation.org/reports/losing_ground/ar2.shtml). It is very common to hear people decrying 'cuts' when there is no such thing going on. The issue is purely one of uncontrolled rising costs full stop.

You are perfectly correct that the extra money is not spent on faculty salary costs. In fact, overall costs for faculty have been slightly declining due to the widespread use of adjunct professors who make very little and have no benefits. So if prices are rising much faster then inflation and the money isn't going to the average professor where is it going?

My guess is campus upgrades (somewhat offset by donations), administration salaries, sports - all of which have been growing like gangbusters at nearly any university you observe. At big universities the sports programs may actually be money-makers, but smaller universities loose money on them. It is also worth noting the rise of 'superstar' professors that make salaries well into the six figures (200k to 400k) and are especially prevalent in law schools.

From what I've one of the major reasons prices have risen at public universities is because states contribute less to them. This has been the case for the last 10 years. There are many sources to cite but here is a good one: http://www.highereducation.org/reports/losing_ground/ar2.shtml . Inflation and stagnant wages make it even worse.

Reduced state aid, stagnant wages (for the last 30 years as compared to inflation), a more competitive job market, and stricter borrowing are all conspiring to make college much less affordable for the upcoming college-bound generation and the last one.

NY is near the top in state spending on education and near the middle of the pack on graduation rates, test scores, etc. I'd hardly call that "about the second best school system in the country."

Do we have some good state colleges in the SUNY system? You bet... but having good state colleges mean nothing when you have cities like Rochester with a 39% graduation rate.

Here's a comparison of graduation rates by state where NY comes in with a mediocre 87% and another study places NY at 16th in the country. Care to back up your assertion that we have one of the best school systems in the country?

From TFA: Of every 100 ninth-graders, only 68 graduate high school on time and only 18 make it through college on time . . . See National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Are you _kidding_ me?!