By David Plank

The latest PPIC poll on higher education in California was released last month, and the findings will bring no cheer to our state's public colleges and universities. On the bright side, most respondents affirm that a strong higher education system is important for California's future, and they agree that recent budget cuts are causing significant harm to both colleges and students. At the same time, a substantial majority of respondents is unwilling to pay higher taxes to support post-secondary education, and a similar majority rejects the idea that students should pay more for their education than they already pay.

These findings should come as no surprise. Annual PPIC surveys on higher education since 2007 have produced almost exactly the same results, and PPIC surveys on K-12 education share the same headlines. All of these polls show that most Californians don't like cutting expenditures on things they like (including schools, colleges, and universities), but most also don't believe that people they like (themselves, their children) should have to pay more in the way of taxes and fees to protect the things they like from budget cuts. Thus, when it comes to post-secondary education, Californians want the state to support excellent public colleges and universities, but only if no one has to pay.

What accounts for this? The survey finding that matters most is not from PPIC, but from a recent Gallup poll. On average, Americans believe that 51 cents of every dollar the federal government spends is wasted. The numbers for state and local governments are slightly better, but not much. In the view of most Americans a free lunch is sitting right behind the bar, guarded by venal politicians and greedy bureaucrats. If public officials would stop wasting money on things that don't matter, there would be plenty of money for the things that do.

Read more »