Rich College, Poor College

(I found this story in the NYT, but since they lacked the ethics to link to the source, I will only link to the original, from which I got my info.)

It's probably not a shock that elite private research universities spend more on their students than community colleges. The Delta Project has been assembling the data, and put out a summary graph (see link - I can't copy it).

Some key points: the private research U spend about twice as much per student ($37k/yr) as a public research U and 3.5 times as much as a community college. Most students, of course, are in community colleges or public universities.

Of course the really good question, as one of our great Presidents asked, is: "Is our children learning." Or more precisely, how much are they learning. I have taught in community colleges and public research U's and of course the students are hardly comparable, and the students at the elite RUs are the most different of all. Still, I would really like to see comprehensive post college testing that would assess how much students are learning at various institutions.

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