Higher Education: Are You Sick Yet?

One of the American dreams has been to either send your child to college, or attend it yourself. It has to do with improving your own stead, and making the next generation better than you. But what about your money enriching the already filthy rich?

To put a particularly disgusting underscore on the colleges to which middle and lower-class families pay their hard-earned money, it has been revealed what some folks make in pay who having nothing to do with actually educating your kid. For example, how about a college coach who makes over 4 million bucks a year? Having been a college teacher myself, I can assure you not much of your money goes toward hiring good instructors. Which then speaks volumes about the worthlessness of a college education.

Take note of the money spent on college sports. Nice if you're into that, but if your son or daughter is just trying to get, say, a good medical education, it's something else. Colleges have taken it on themselves to provide the NFL and NBA with a "minor league," training athletes for their prime gigs in pro sports - athletes who then receive the same degree as your kid at the end of 4 years, having not really earned it at all, but rather "working' for the school. It fits my definition of corruption, all on your educational dime.

High-paid officials: It's not just college presidents - USATODAY.com

Now, an analysis of tax filings of more than 4,000 other employees at 600 private colleges shows that presidents' earnings are relatively modest.

For example, the head football coach at the University of Southern California and a Columbia University dermatologist each earned more than $4 million in 2007, making them the highest paid employees at private colleges. The presidents, meanwhile, earned about $900,000 and $1.4 million, respectively.

The salaries of employees other than presidents were released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which has published a report on presidents' compensation each fall for more than 15 years. It is expanding its scope to other employees, it says, because their compensation "contributes to the broader national discussion about appropriate levels of pay for leaders in all sectors," including higher education.

"There are other people getting pretty big paychecks" besides presidents, says Chronicle editor Jeffrey Selingo.