RUTHFULLY YOURS

How much of the money is spent on drivel….check out: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/oct/2/golden-hammer-college-hid-95m-in-administrator-boo/?page=all Open the Books.org exposed:

“How a college hid $95 million in expense like booze, shooting clubs”

And: Is There Really a Lack of Funding in Education? The Books are Open.

http://forthegoodofillinois.org/blog/2011/10/is-there-really-a-lack-of-funding-in-education-open-the-books-and-find-out/

Earlier this fall, I published a story questioning the wisdom of Millennials’ above average desire to foot the cost of college for their kids. A reader named Morgan Ownbey commented to accuse me of using “shady stat tactics” by working from the median income and the projected cost of attending an elite private school to calculate the necessary savings rate. Ownbey’s point: “You do not have to save half a million dollar to send your kid to a good state school.”

I stand by my initial response — that my intentions were good and where to go to college is a personal and complicated decision between parent and child — I also stand by my concerns that young Americans’ will be able to save enough to cover the costs of both college and retirement. However, two recent reports suggest Ownbey and I both had a point.

According to a report out this week from the Urban Institute, across the country 81% of college-bound high school graduates enroll at home state schools or private institutions in state. (The latter arrangement can be a money saver if students live with their parents and commute to school.) Authors Sandy Baum, a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, and research assistant Martha Johnson, however, make the larger argument that a true sense of the status of public higher education in America requires a state-by-state look.

Baum and Johnson write: “Because most students remain in-state to take advantage of lower tuition, a clear view of cross-state variation is vital for understanding the nature and extent of barriers to college affordability and for developing policies to address those barriers.”

Mississippi has the highest percentage of students remaining in state at 93%. According to new College Board data, Mississippi in state tuition and fees come to $7,147 this school year, while the 19% of Mississippi’s first-time college students coming from another state paid $19,480, making Mississippi among the ten least expensive states to attend public college in state and the 12 least expensive for out-of-state.

Last month, a majority of the states sued the federal government over the so-called Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate agenda. As the states explained, the president’s carbon regulation “unlawfully expands the federal government’s regulatory power over electricity production and consumption in nearly every State.” The suit will wind its way through the courts, with legal resolution years away.

Although legal challenges are necessary, they are not enough. If states have any chance of defeating the EPA’s attempt to take control over our energy choices, they must mobilize all three branches of government.

The EPA’s carbon regulation forces states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent, on average, by 2030. The limits are so strict that many states will be forced to shut down affordable energy sources, mandate more-expensive sources, and join regional cap-and-trade schemes — all of which will drive up energy prices, to the detriment of the poor and middle class.

States have responded by suing the Obama administration and requesting a stay of the rule. And while legal scholars across the political spectrum agree that the EPA has a weak case, pinning our hopes on a legal victory is a mistake. In fact, it is a mistake the EPA is counting on states to make.