Don't bet the farm on kid's education

Dear Mr. Berko: My son's grades are not that good but we have some pull to get him into the University of Florida at Gainesville, which is a top school and also the college of his choice. It's going to cost us about $30,000 a year as an out-of-state student and I've arranged to take out a home mortgage to cover the costs. But what I'd like to know is why college costs have increased so much?

When I went to college in the 1970s the cost for all four years was about $35,000. What am I missing? What has caused costs to increase so much? I find it almost impossible to believe that it's going to cost me $120,000, which is nearly four times as much as it cost me for four years.

I'm willing to spend that money because it should give my son a better chance at getting a good job when he graduates. But it's hard to believe that college costs have risen faster than medical costs and inflation.

P.W., Galesburg, Ill.

Dear P.W.: The increase in college costs are because of five factors:

•1. Administration stupidity.

•2. Enormous waste.

•3. Poor planning and lousy management.

•4. The huge number of college loan companies willing to make money easily available.

•5. Your willingness to pay the costs.

It's all a game.

I can take almost any college budget and reduce expenses 25 percent to 35 percent, maintain teachers' salaries, classroom sizes and improve the quality of the education process.

College budgets, with lessons from Congress and state legislatures, contain more pork than a pig farm, more fat than a soap factory and more beeswax than a presidential nominating convention.

The high cost of attending college has little to do with providing an education. College budgets are crammed with runaway expenditures and overblown costs that make the Pentagon spending look like Scrooge.

Colleges have become big business today but they're run by scholars who can't teach or ex-politicians who couldn't get re-elected. That's sort of like putting a sex maniac in charge of a brothel. These idiots don't know bupkis about running a business, analyzing a balance sheet, understanding an income statement or hiring qualified people.

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