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Well, a huge part of it is inflation.  Another part is the medical coverage that each student (by law) has to get, or at least they can waive it if they can get the insurance from their parents (which is what I did).

I'm aware of multiple merit-based scholarships AND need-based scholarships that are just floating around waiting to be used.  Also, the government offers grants and financial aid.  Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I don't see education being jeopardized because of rising tuition.  As long as they go to a public school--private schools suck in terms of tuition :P
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Inflation is not the problem. The problem is the rate tuition is increasing is much, much higher than inflation. If inflation was 2% or 3% then tuition should rise an equal level. The problem is when tuition increases 10% or 20% each year, and every year. While that may not seem that much, multiplied over 10 or 15 years, it is a huge amount of money, double or triple what the tuition is. Wasn't there a time when tuition was free in California? I think it was Governor Ronald Reagan who destroyed higher education by introducing tuition. Now it is out of control.

I think the problem is the faculty is demanding too much pay and too many perks. Why do we have to buy books they write which are twice as expensive but are ranked lower in opinion polls at amazon? Why not get the best book? One other example of how students are getting screwed is the campus soda machines. The ones spread around campus are a buck for a 12 ounce can of pepsi. There are also soda vending machines in Faculty-only areas which are 35 cents for the same can of soda.

I do not think we should pay faculty teachers 100,000 grand a year (actually that is with the summer paid off), to teach 3 hours a day and then skip the one hour of office time so they can get home before 1pm. Faculty is the problem. If they are going to get paid that amount, then they should teach a full 8 hour day, not 3 hours. That would half the tuition right there.

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I do not think we should pay faculty teachers 100,000 grand a year (actually that is with the summer paid off), to teach 3 hours a day and then skip the one hour of office time so they can get home before 1pm. Faculty is the problem. If they are going to get paid that amount, then they should teach a full 8 hour day, not 3 hours. That would half the tuition right there.
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While I don't think its the entire problem, I will agree that some of the college profs get way too much money.  The problem is that once they reach a certain level of tenure, they are virtually untouchable, and as a result they belive they deserve $100,000+/yr.  And thats insane, in my opinion.

After all, something is really wrong when a college professor working less than 4 hrs/day is getting $100,000+/yr, while an urban police officer putting his life on the line on a daily basis is lucky to make 1/3 of that money/yr.

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While I don't think its the entire problem, I will agree that some of the college profs get way too much money.  The problem is that once they reach a certain level of tenure, they are virtually untouchable, and as a result they belive they deserve $100,000+/yr.  And thats insane, in my opinion.

After all, something is really wrong when a college professor working less than 4 hrs/day is getting $100,000+/yr, while an urban police officer putting his life on the line on a daily basis is lucky to make 1/3 of that money/yr.
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I agree.  But in defense of all the professors I've ever worked with, they EARNED their positions.  You have no idea how difficult it is nowadays to get a good academic position in the sciences.  However, police and teachers are the two professions I feel are grossly underpaid.

But you can't just have totally free education.  State universities are government subsidized already, that's why you see huge discrepancies between in-state and out-of-state tuitions.  If you do away with tuition, that just means more taxes.  You're pretty much screwed either way.

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I agree.  But in defense of all the professors I've ever worked with, they EARNED their positions.  You have no idea how difficult it is nowadays to get a good academic position in the sciences.  However, police and teachers are the two professions I feel are grossly underpaid.

But you can't just have totally free education.  State universities are government subsidized already, that's why you see huge discrepancies between in-state and out-of-state tuitions.  If you do away with tuition, that just means more taxes.  You're pretty much screwed either way.
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Teachers have not earned it. No Way! Elementary school and grade school teachers deserve more. They work a full day and are underpaid. College Professors should be shot as lazy b*sturds. I have only had a few two or three who really cared about what they were teaching. Most went into teaching as college professors because they were weeded out of corporate america as lazy. They want a comfortable job and to be grossly overpaid.

Either a teacher should be paid as a researcher where they advance human knowledge, or they should be paid as lecturers where they lead classes 8 hours a day. Forget this 15 hours a week crap teachload. If they are that gifted, then surley they can talk about a subject they love a little more than 3 hours a day. Corporate America expects more from me and I do not have a Ph.D. And be honest, grad school is a joke compared to real work, and by real work I mean doing something you are not genuinly interested in for 8 or 9 hours a day.

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Teachers have not earned it. No Way! Elementary school and grade school teachers deserve more. They work a full day and are underpaid. College Professors should be shot as lazy b*sturds. I have only had a few two or three who really cared about what they were teaching. Most went into teaching as college professors because they were weeded out of corporate america as lazy. They want a comfortable job and to be grossly overpaid.

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Where the hell do you get off generalizing like this?  When you put in 4 years of undergrad, 6 years of grad and 5 years of postdoc before landing an assistant position, and then another 8 years after that to get tenure and full professorship, THEN complain.  They've absolutely earned it because they actually WORKED for it.  This is not to trivialize the elementary and secondary school teachers, who do excellent work, but the qualifications do not match.  Yes, they should be paid more, but NOT as much as college professors.

As for the whole industry vs. academics thing, people go back and forth.  I don't know what you studied, but in the medical science field, people go back and forth between academic positions and working in companies.  If college professors wanted the money, with their qualifications, they would make a HELL of a lot more money in a company like Genentech instead of being in a university.  The difference is that they actually care.

This, of course, is MY opinion...which is backed up by MY experiences with professors in undergrad and grad school.

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Either a teacher should be paid as a researcher where they advance human knowledge, or they should be paid as lecturers where they lead classes 8 hours a day. Forget this 15 hours a week crap teachload. If they are that gifted, then surley they can talk about a subject they love a little more than 3 hours a day. Corporate America expects more from me and I do not have a Ph.D. And be honest, grad school is a joke compared to real work, and by real work I mean doing something you are not genuinly interested in for 8 or 9 hours a day.
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You have no idea what the hell you're talking about.  When I was in graduate school at Duke, I worked at least 10 hours a day six days out of the week on my project.  I left with a master's degree after two years because I couldn't keep up.  My professor was there at least as long, if not more, and on the weekends I would see him working as hard as I.  My dean and chairman, though they made upwards of $200k/year, worked on weekends too.  EVERY SINGLE ONE of my professors in the program worked and EARNED their money.  Don't you dare go around trivializing something you can have no comprehension over.

I'm thinking of going back though.  Maybe you should too, so that you actually experience something before you shoot your mouth off.

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Where the hell do you get off generalizing like this?  When you put in 4 years of undergrad, 6 years of grad and 5 years of postdoc before landing an assistant position, and then another 8 years after that to get tenure and full professorship, THEN complain.  They've absolutely earned it because they actually WORKED for it.  This is not to trivialize the elementary and secondary school teachers, who do excellent work, but the qualifications do not match.  Yes, they should be paid more, but NOT as much as college professors.End Quote

If you are saying that reading a book is work and you should get paid for it, then I will say no more. However, for most of the people I knew in college, reading something they were interested in was something they loved to do. It was not work. It was a hell of alot easier than selling fries with burgers for 5 bucks an hour. College professors are worthless in my opinion. I have only had a few professors with interest in their field. But then again, I went to a state school.

As for elementary school teachers, I think they are more important than college professors. They teach us how to get along with each other and plant the seed of inquiry. Thier job is much more difficult.

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If college professors wanted the money, with their qualifications, they would make a HELL of a lot more money in a company like Genentech instead of being in a university.  The difference is that they actually care.
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You have been lucky to study with professors who seem to care. My experiance has been the opposite.

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My dean and chairman, though they made upwards of $200k/year, worked on weekends too.  EVERY SINGLE ONE of my professors in the program worked and EARNED their money.  Don't you dare go around trivializing something you can have no comprehension over.
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I have a ton of experiance here. College professors are worthless. All of them. Students could learn as much from a bookstore clerk leading a book discussion as they could from a teacher babbling. A teacher should inspire and be expert in their field. All of the ones I have had were there punching a timeclock, and trying to cheat it by not showing up for office hours.

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I'm thinking of going back though.  Maybe you should too, so that you actually experience something before you shoot your mouth off.
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I was there. And I did well, but not because a teacher helped. They are greedy and we need to eliminate tenure. Tenure is evil. How about if I could find a job where I could not get fired regardless of what I do.

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Hey Rice, I am assuming those professors you had who worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week were all doing research? That is different than what I am writing about. My main point was about the professors at the undergraduate level who do no research. What is wrong with telling them they have to work 8 hour days?

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Those ARE the professors I'm talking about.  As far as I know, in every field, professors not only do research, they must help recruit exemplary students, the best faculty AND write grants AND teach.  You might be thinking about the graduate student instructors or the lecturers who do nothing but teach.

Professors in the molecular biology department have deadlines to keep to submit grant proposals for funding, they have to hold office hours at least three hours a week, and they teach at least three hours a week each semester.  And somehow they find time to work in the lab too.  Oh, and let's not forget seminars, journal clubs, extracurricular activities for interested students, and countless other things that an academic is supposed to do.  I don't know what school you went to but if you had such a bad experience maybe your professors SHOULD be shot.  Just don't put them in a class with mine.

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If you are saying that reading a book is work and you should get paid for it, then I will say no more. However, for most of the people I knew in college, reading something they were interested in was something they loved to do. It was not work. It was a hell of alot easier than selling fries with burgers for 5 bucks an hour. College professors are worthless in my opinion. I have only had a few professors with interest in their field. But then again, I went to a state school. End Quote

They HAVE to read to stay ahead.  If you don't keep on taking in knowledge you can't keep up with the flow of learning.  And a lot of people sold fries and burgers to pay their way through college, or stocking shelves, or sweeping floors.  If you have this to say about the majority of your professors, then I'd have to say that your school sucked at recruiting.  I went to a state school--The University of California at Berkeley.  I also went to a private school at Duke University.  I don't think there was any difference in the level of commitment in these professors.

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As for elementary school teachers, I think they are more important than college professors. They teach us how to get along with each other and plant the seed of inquiry. Thier job is much more difficult.End Quote

College professors do that too, but most of the time they assume you're intelligent and mature enough that they don't have to spoonfeed you.  

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I have a ton of experiance here. College professors are worthless. All of them. Students could learn as much from a bookstore clerk leading a book discussion as they could from a teacher babbling. A teacher should inspire and be expert in their field. All of the ones I have had were there punching a timeclock, and trying to cheat it by not showing up for office hours. End Quote

See above.

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I was there. And I did well, but not because a teacher helped. They are greedy and we need to eliminate tenure. Tenure is evil. How about if I could find a job where I could not get fired regardless of what I do.
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You're a very idealized individual, you know that?  If a professor does not produce, EVEN if he's on tenure, he gets reassigned.  No university is that stupid.  I don't know what your school's problem is, but like I said in the post above, don't try to equate your experience with mine or others.  

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Those ARE the professors I'm talking about.  As far as I know, in every field, professors not only do research, they must help recruit exemplary students, the best faculty AND write grants AND teach.  You might be thinking about the graduate student instructors or the lecturers who do nothing but teach.

Professors in the molecular biology department have deadlines to keep to submit grant proposals for funding, they have to hold office hours at least three hours a week, and they teach at least three hours a week each semester.  And somehow they find time to work in the lab too.  Oh, and let's not forget seminars, journal clubs, extracurricular activities for interested students, and countless other things that an academic is supposed to do.  I don't know what school you went to but if you had such a bad experience maybe your professors SHOULD be shot.  Just don't put them in a class with mine.
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I still think tenure is wrong, and that bad teachers should not be protected by contracts which say they can not be fired. I also think that college professors are overpaid. If intellectual curiousity is at the heart of their research, they would do it for much less than 200k a year. They should not have it so good while some students get turned away because they can not afford the 30k a year some schools charge. In another decade a college education will probably cost more than $200,000 at some private schools and $100,000 at some state schools. Education should be free.

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Only a very few full professors make $100K.  The average is more like $65-70 for FULL PROFESSORS, and many (my self included) make lots less.  But then, I didn't go into this profession expecting to get rich, but I didn't take a vow of
poverty either.
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That is not the avarage. In my local community college they top out at over 110k a year for professors and 180k a year for administrators. Full 4 year schools pay even more. 65k a year may be more like the starting salary. I am not against you getting paid well. What I am against is students having to pay double the tuition every 5 or 6 years so the faculty can get a raise.

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3-4 courses a semester might not sound like a lot, but in addition, there is office hours, committees, lesson planning, developing new courses, research, grading, keeping current, writing, advising.  During the school year I put in about 50-60 hours per week.  During "summer vacation" its more like 40-50, but still a good work week.
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At my local college, it is the administration which develops new courses and does all the grant writing. Most of the teachers I had did not produce a new lesson plan every year, some used overheads with citations to books 2 or 3 editions removed. Grading? Yeah, running a sheet through a scantron is hard. And the few essay exams I wrote, I swear the professor did not even fully read it. They just skimmed it looking for "key words". And where I come from, when summer hits most teachers go on vacation. So I do not know where you are comming up with those hours you list.

So, how do we fix the problem? First, lay off all the faculty. Start clean. Then re-hire them as lecuturers. 90% of classes are nothing more than a lecture anyways. It is not like the sciences where you have to set up a laboratory, so I would treat them a bit different. Then hire faculty afterwards where needed. And eliminate tenure. Have a system in place where students submit a report stating how good the teacher was, and if the teacher gets less than a 80% approval rate, let that professor go. Remember, since the students are paying for the tuition, there should be a return policy if you do not get what you paid for. And you are paying for quality and expertese from the teacher.

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That is not the avarage. In my local community college they top out at over 110k a year for professors and 180k a year for administrators. Full 4 year schools pay even more. 65k a year may be more like the starting salary. I am not against you getting paid well. What I am against is students having to pay double the tuition every 5 or 6 years so the faculty can get a raise. End Quote

So get a job there if it's so easy and they make too much money.  What's wrong with the faculty getting a raise?  Don't you expect one every year you work at your job?

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At my local college, it is the administration which develops new courses and does all the grant writing. End Quote

And you know this how??

Quoting:Grading? Yeah, running a sheet through a scantron is hard. And the few essay exams I wrote, I swear the professor did not even fully read it. They just skimmed it looking for "key words".End Quote

Yeah, running A sheet through a scantron is not hard, but when you have a couple hundred, it does take a while.  And, try reading word for word a couple hundred essays.  

Quoting:And where I come from, when summer hits most teachers go on vacation. So I do not know where you are comming up with those hours you list.End Quote

Well, look at the enrollment for the summer classes.  Less students=less teachers

Quoting:So, how do we fix the problem? First, lay off all the faculty. Start clean. Then re-hire them as lecuturers. 90% of classes are nothing more than a lecture anyways. It is not like the sciences where you have to set up a laboratory, so I would treat them a bit different. Then hire faculty afterwards where needed. And eliminate tenure. Have a system in place where students submit a report stating how good the teacher was, and if the teacher gets less than a 80% approval rate, let that professor go. Remember, since the students are paying for the tuition, there should be a return policy if you do not get what you paid for. And you are paying for quality and expertese from the teacher.
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Yeah right.  And what about those professors who are really good, but the students think are "too hard".  This is just a pipe dream.  Besides, who is going to make the decision on who needs to be hired?  Can you also explain what the difference would be between faculty and "lecturer"?  Thinking back to high school and grade school, most of the classes there were "lectures" too.  Should we do this for all schools?  As far as the return policy, who's going to decide if the reason you failed is the professor's or your own?

Obviously, you have a problem with the quality of education you received.  That doesn't mean that all of the schools in this country suck.  I happened to have excellent professors, who I don't believe were grossly overpaid.

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That is not the avarage. In my local community college they top out at over 110k a year for professors and 180k a year for administrators. Full 4 year schools pay even more. 65k a year may be more like the starting salary. I am not against you getting paid well. What I am against is students having to pay double the tuition every 5 or 6 years so the faculty can get a raise. End Quote

The journal "Academe" publishes lots of stats on faculty compensation on an annual basis, broken down be type of school, region, rank.  Check it out and you will find that the numbers I used are fairly accurate - ie ballpark.  I can't believe that CC faculty anywhere make over $100K, but if you are right, tell me where and I'll apply there.  Evan at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton only a few make those kinds of bucks.

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At my local college, it is the administration which develops new courses and does all the grant writing. Most of the teachers I had did not produce a new lesson plan every year, some used overheads with citations to books 2 or 3 editions removed. Grading? Yeah, running a sheet through a scantron is hard. And the few essay exams I wrote, I swear the professor did not even fully read it. They just skimmed it looking for "key words". And where I come from, when summer hits most teachers go on vacation. So I do not know where you are comming up with those hours you list.End Quote

Obviously, I haven't mastered the technology here but... If that's the case you do have a gripe.  I ONLY give essay exams and papers - short ones for frosh/soph and term papers for jun/sen courses.  I, and all my colleagues read and comment on them thoroughly, even rewrite portions to teach by example.  I wouldn't stand for an administrator developing a course for me to teach - no how, no way NEVER!  That's my job, I'm the "expert", the one who has, and continues to study the subjects I teach.  What the H do administrators know about History?

As to your "solution", it would be a disaster.  As I said before, tenure is suppose to protect academic freedom, not incompetence.  I respect the opinions of my students, and welcome them to express themselves even if I think they are idiots or fascists.  I demand the right to express my views of my subject without reference to whatever is "politically correct" at any moment.  That's what tenure is for.
At my schools students DO rate faculty in every class, and their views are part of the evaluation process.  They are also asked for a self eval - how much time did you spend on this course?  What grade do you expect - stuff like that.
If what you have said about your CC is accurate, then, as I said, you do have a gripe, but that situation is FAR from the norm, and your generalizing from one bad situation to all of higher education is WAY out of line, or the schools where I have taught and attended were real gems.  

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So get a job there if it's so easy and they make too much money.  What's wrong with the faculty getting a raise?  Don't you expect one every year you work at your job?
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The problem is that they are not asking for a cost of living raise. They want more than inflation. Plus, they get raises automatically for years served and if they go back to school to get a Ed.D (Which sounds like a good idea). When my school offered the pay jump for that degree, many of the faculty found an on-line school in Florida (Nova) which gives GRADUATE credit for life experiance. So if you taught a college class for a year, that school assumed you had a life experiance and they gave you credit toward a Ed.D Looking in the back of my course catalouge at faculty profiles, I would say over 25% recieved this benifit which was worth over 15k a year.

Why not just give the faculty a fair raise which equals inflation?

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And you know this how??
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Because I worked there for three years.

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Yeah, running A sheet through a scantron is not hard, but when you have a couple hundred, it does take a while.  And, try reading word for word a couple hundred essays.  
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Like I said, my experiance is they did not fully read the essay's, they scanned through them looking for key words. And some of the faculty did have secretaries in administrative offices run the scantrons for them.

I guess it comes down to what is more important. Lowering tuition so more kids can afford an education or paying faculty members high salaries.

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Well, look at the enrollment for the summer classes.  Less students=less teachers

Yeah right.  And what about those professors who are really good, but the students think are "too hard".  This is just a pipe dream.  Besides, who is going to make the decision on who needs to be hired?  Can you also explain what the difference would be between faculty and "lecturer"?  Thinking back to high school and grade school, most of the classes there were "lectures" too.  Should we do this for all schools?  As far as the return policy, who's going to decide if the reason you failed is the professor's or your own?

Obviously, you have a problem with the quality of education you received.  That doesn't mean that all of the schools in this country suck.  I happened to have excellent professors, who I don't believe were grossly overpaid.
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The reason I would re-classify faculty as lecturers is because then you can assign them 8 hours of lecturing a day and take away any other responsibilities they have. All they would have to do is lecture. My premise is if you have someone making 90k a year teach three classes, the tuition problem will remain as it is. If you have a lecturer work 8 hours a day at 70k, they tuition is going to go down. It is just an idea.

What is better, looking for possible solutions or continuing down a path where one day a four year education in a state school will cost more than a house?

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The reason I would re-classify faculty as lecturers is because then you can assign them 8 hours of lecturing a day and take away any other responsibilities they have. All they would have to do is lecture. My premise is if you have someone making 90k a year teach three classes, the tuition problem will remain as it is. If you have a lecturer work 8 hours a day at 70k, they tuition is going to go down. It is just an idea.

What is better, looking for possible solutions or continuing down a path where one day a four year education in a state school will cost more than a house?
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Okay, so you have someone doing nothing but lecture 8 hours a day at 70K.  You then have to hire someone else to do everything else?  You will probably end up paying the person who does everything else (since they would need a degree probably) much more than the 20K you are saving by doing so.  

Don't get me wrong, the thought of putting my 3 children through college scares the crap out of me.(estimated at over $300000)  But, as has been pointed out, there are many types of programs to help with the costs.  Plus, my husband worked to put himself through college, and my children will be expected to do the same.  

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I guess it comes down to what is more important. Lowering tuition so more kids can afford an education or paying faculty members high salaries.
The reason I would re-classify faculty as lecturers is because then you can assign them 8 hours of lecturing a day and take away any other responsibilities they have. All they would have to do is lecture. My premise is if you have someone making 90k a year teach three classes, the tuition problem will remain as it is. If you have a lecturer work 8 hours a day at 70k, they tuition is going to go down. It is just an idea.

What is better, looking for possible solutions or continuing down a path where one day a four year education in a state school will cost more than a house?
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Again, John, as a colloge professor I too would love to see lower tuitions - read FREE tuition for anyone who could be admitted, based on admission standards - at every public college  in the country. But tuition policy is not controilled by the faculty at any school that I know of.  Talk to your state legislators about that.  My students have been doing that!!

But think about this - If your professor was teaching 8 hours/day, when would s/he have time to 1. lead a life, and 2, keep up with the field?  For elem & HS teachers, this isn't much of a problem because they teach the basics.  We in colleges are suppose to be teaching at the "cutting edge".  That means, at the least, that we need to be reading at the cutting edge.  If I had to spend 8 hours/ day in the classroom, then grade paper (which I would not give over to a third party) and plan what I wanted to do next, there would be no way, even at 70K (lots more than I, as a full professor, make) would be willing to put up with.
Again, I see lots wrong with what you report as your experience, and think someone should look into the way your CC is run.  What I object to is that your put all of us in the same bag.  I can assure you that, from my experience, at Rutgers University (Newark & New Brunswick-Livingston campuses), Castleton State College, Potsdam State College, Old Westbury S.C., Keane S.C. your negative experiance is unique. And I must say that, as an academic/teacher (I am both) I resent the way you have charcterized everone in my profession as greedy, lazy sponges.  It is my experience, and my belief that the overwhelming majority of college teachers/researchers/writers/ etc. are dedicated to the enrichment of their students - and are willing to commit many, many hours to that end.  I know that I do - with individual councelling and explantation, during office hours, or arranged  meetings, writting letters of recommendation, advising student club - like our "History & Politics" club and Phi Alph Theta, the history national honors society.  And I also know that I am not unique.  Professors all over the country are dedicated to the success of their students,l and may others work hard to help them achieve it.