Mac president: Why state higher-ed defunding hurts even me

I am the president of a highly selective private college that is actually benefiting from the de-funding of public higher education. As more and more families question the value proposition of once-stellar public institutions, we are seeing a surge in applicants whom we are unable, as a small college, to accommodate. Many of these are students from working-class families who are attracted to Macalester College by our policy of meeting the full need of every student we admit; some are students from families of means who are concerned about larger classes, fewer faculty members, and declining graduation rates at the publics.

But I am a citizen and a father even before I am a college president, and I would trade the increase in applications to my institution for more thoughtful and informed public policy at the state and federal level and for a robust system of public education from early childhood through graduate school.

-- Macalester College President Brian Rosenberg criticizing the short-sightedness of reduced state funding for higher education in his Huffington Post piece "Education and the National Debt."

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