This is indeed an example of "extreme stupidity":

“Back in the 1970s, before college became essential to securing a middle-class lifestyle, our government did a great job of helping students pay for school. Students from modest economic backgrounds received almost free tuition through Pell grants, and middle-class households could still afford to pay for their kids’ college.”

Since then, tuition at public and private universities has soared while government support for higher education, other than student loan programs, has diminished.

This is a wonderful example of extreme stupidity. America will pony up a trillion or two for a president who goes to war on a whim, but can’t find the money to adequately educate its young. History has shown that these kinds of destructive trade-offs are early clues to a society in decline.

At the state level, per-pupil spending for higher education is at a 25-year low, even as government officials and corporate leaders keep pounding out the message that a college degree is the key to a successful future.

But Herbert is missing the point a bit by comparing spending on the Iraq war to education spending.  The two aren't linked.  What ARE linked, however, are spending on prisons vs. schools (given that, for example, 52% of black men who fail to get a high school degree end up in prison at some point in their lives).  I've posted four slides I've put together with data on this at www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/Skewedspending.pdf.

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March 22, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Stepping on the Dream

By BOB HERBERT

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22herbert.html

One of the weirder things at work these days is the fact that we’re making it more difficult for American youngsters to afford college at a time when a college education is a virtual prerequisite for establishing and maintaining a middle-class standard of living.