Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Cost of College

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Cost of College
  • Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 11:28:13 -0800

That's what I made, almost. For a single male in the City it was like being rich. I never looked at the amount of taxes taken out.

Actually our class size was higher. I never calculated in real terms what fraction of the college's dollar was actually going to me, but since I was at the lower end of the pay scale (doing it mostly out of love), with the higher class size (they're paid by the body) I suspect that only about 25% of the take went to the teacher.

English and math are in a class by themselves, almost, with large amounts of detailed homework that need correcting. But most college math teachers don't grade all the homework (checking every last pencil stroke would be ideal), since there's no specific requirement to do so. It's highly correlated with the bestowal of tenure, whereupon no one looks over their shoulder. Many have a system where they grade just a few of the assigned problems in detail, but don't tell the kids exactly which problems, so if you don't do the hardest ones you'll likely fail the assignment. But it's pointless anyway at the lower levels to grade homework, since there are published solution manuals that one can just copy.

You're quite correct. The $5 billion spent on lower-end college in CA is just the beginning. Many more prima donnas await in the CSU and UC systems, but I have no data on the expenditures. But I've observed (as a student) that people with Ph. D. degrees are routinely teaching everyday beginning calculus, when the same topic is easily taught by anyone with a master's degree (or lower, in the event of real competence) for much less salary. But in fact you find the opposite. Over the years the CSU and UC have been purged of anyone with "only" an M. S., and the CCC has been similarly purged of anyone with "only" a B. S. And you'll find another parallel; collectively those low-level courses (that could easily by taught by someone one degree lower) are typically more numerous in the class schedule (especially when measured in terms of units, rather than sections) than upper-division or graduate courses.

I just always wonder why we can't open up the teaching profession to all those who can, instead of dogmatically choosing teachers on the details of their sheepskin. Albert Einstein wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near an elementary classroom, in the world created by the teachers' unions, because he (I surmise) didn't have an elementary ed. teaching credential. Who knows, he might have made a bad teacher. But why wouldn't one want to at least give him a try?

Bill

Marie McHarry wrote:

<<Bill: But there's no doubt that $100 a unit is about the minimum you could run a college for, especially with fewer suits running around scheduling faculty meetings. It's the same number you get if you figure from the point of view of teachers' salaries vs. class size. A teacher is paid $30,000 to manage 30 enrollees in 5 classes per semester, two semesters a year. >>
I hope your pay scale is a little out of date, though I fear it's not.
Twenty-five years ago I got US$15000 to teach 3 classes of writing per
quarter (20 students/class). That was a more-than-40-hour-per-week job --
more like 50 or 60 because I read all the stuff the kiddies wrote, commented
on it, and explained how they could re-write. I wouldn't even consider 5
classes of 30 enrollees for $30000. There are better ways to kill myself. If
you move beyond the community college, costs go up all around. Professors
aren't going to be working for peon wages, and overhead costs are going to
be higher, I suspect, at regular universities than at CCs.

Marie

_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/billj%40harborside.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead










Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page