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<p><a href=“Rising Tide of Education Rules Increase Costs - AAF”>http://americanactionforum.org/research/rising-tide-of-education-rules-increase-costs</a></p>
<p>Not much per person.</p>
<p>And we need a Department of Education because…?</p>
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<p>Now that’s funny! </p>
<p>Well, if it covers 100 million people, that’s only $27 each. Obviously some of it is useful, and perfect efficiency is impossible.</p>
<p>Some (large chunks) of it is composed of time applying for grants and other funding. That’s not going to change.</p>
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<p>It is thinking like that which explains why we have such a bloated bureaucracy and budgets.</p>
<p>Why on earth would $27 per person be a reasonable number? If another 1 million people entered the school system, do you really think that the administrative cost to deal with government regulation should increase by $27M a year? Remember, we aren’t even talking about the cost of the administration within the schools for all the other functions. This is just to be in compliance with regulations.</p>
<p>Now, if you tell me that they aren’t using these new-fangled machines called “computers” then that number would almost make sense…if you divide it by 10.</p>
<p>I didn’t say it is reasonable, because neither you nor I have any way to to calculate a ‘reasonable’ number (other than taking whatever number it is and dividing by 10). I said it isn’t much, and it isn’t in context of blaming it significantly for the rising cost of education.</p>
<p>^^^ Huh?</p>
<p>Well if you weren’t implying that it is reasonable, then I have no idea what you were trying to say with “it isn’t much”.</p>
<p>Look at other businesses to understand how much they spend on managing compliance overhead. Education is not the only ones facing regulations.</p>
<p>Did you not read the article? Do you think a doubling in regulation paperwork since 2006 is reasonable? </p>
<p>If education costs 10-50K a year, then $27 is not much, even if it is spent on wild parties for bureaucrats. </p>
<p>If businesses could get away with $27 a year per person for compliance paperwork, they would be pretty happy.</p>
<p>^^^ That makes me sad.
Sorry, but wasting $2.7B on wild parties for bureaucrats is a lot. </p>
<p>By reducing it to $27/person you are trivializing the total amount wasted. Why not say it is $5/limb/person? Or how about less than a penny per hour per student per year! Well, if that is all it is, then lets triple it!!</p>
<p>This tactic is exactly how bureaucrats try to justify wasting taxpayer money and sadly people fall for it all the time.</p>
<p>If this is merely going to be a rant about wasting taxpayer money, then the discussion does not belong on CC. </p>
<p>I process federal aid for about 100 students a year. I have to know every stinking regulation that schools of 30,000 have to know … and I am the one and only person who is responsible for knowing all of this. I have to manually process aid, and the increasing federal regulations are a huge burden. For example, I now have to update addresses and email addresses for loan records every time I learn of an update, enter CIP codes for students’ program on the loan records, and enter additional info for student enrollment reporting. Every fricking new regulation is an issue for me, as I wear many hats. Small schools are truly dumped on due to the rules. I would love to see a streamlined federal aid program that is simple, easy to understand, and eliminates the need for so much regulatory burden.</p>
<p>Oh, and don’t forget that I have to make sure that all of the non-aid-related stuff tied to federal aid is done: substance abuse awareness, Constitution Day, Clery reporting, Title IX compliance, consumer disclosures, technology “admonishments” (no illegal downloading, etc) … the list goes on and on. It’s more than just paperwork, for sure.</p>
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<p>You are missing the point.</p>
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<p>Bingo.</p>
<p>Saying the burden “only” costs $27/student is the completely wrong way to look at it.</p>