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Of Serfs and Lords

Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class

Richard Kelsey

This book identifies the causes of rising college tuitions. It identifies a system of policies, practices, and regulations that have converted higher education into an inefficient system that serves the interest of the tenured class and professional educators over that of the students. Using statistics, analysis, and examples, the author identifies and names the culprit behind these tuition increases as structural and cultural liberalism, all of which has created a tax on students and tuition payers. The author calls this inefficiency the tenure tax. The book examines how to find value in the current system, and it offers reforms in the form of an education revolution to remake higher education. He advocates for changes from how it hires and contracts with professors, to the role of government and private lending. The thesis of the book is simple: The current system is creating a debtor class of Serfs, studying dubious majors not useful in the job market. The result is that institutions are hunting revenue to feed and pay the elite class, the faculty and administrators, who have become Lords in this educational feudal system.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 164 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4758-3789-6 • Hardback • September 2018 • $69.00 • (£53.00)

978-1-4758-3790-2 • Paperback • September 2018 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-4758-3791-9 • eBook • September 2018 • $32.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Higher, Education / Administration / General, Family & Relationships / Education, Business & Economics / Education, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General

Of Serfs and Lords

Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This book identifies the causes of rising college tuitions. It identifies a system of policies, practices, and regulations that have converted higher education into an inefficient system that serves the interest of the tenured class and professional educators over that of the students. Using statistics, analysis, and examples, the author identifies and names the culprit behind these tuition increases as structural and cultural liberalism, all of which has created a tax on students and tuition payers. The author calls this inefficiency the tenure tax. The book examines how to find value in the current system, and it offers reforms in the form of an education revolution to remake higher education. He advocates for changes from how it hires and contracts with professors, to the role of government and private lending. The thesis of the book is simple: The current system is creating a debtor class of Serfs, studying dubious majors not useful in the job market. The result is that institutions are hunting revenue to feed and pay the elite class, the faculty and administrators, who have become Lords in this educational feudal system.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 164 • Trim: 6¼ x 9

978-1-4758-3789-6 • Hardback • September 2018 • $69.00 • (£53.00)

978-1-4758-3790-2 • Paperback • September 2018 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

978-1-4758-3791-9 • eBook • September 2018 • $32.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Higher, Education / Administration / General, Family & Relationships / Education, Business & Economics / Education, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General

Author

Richard Kelsey isa former assistant law school and technology CEO. He is a trial lawyer and recognized legal expert who examines what’s wrong in higher education and proposes real solutions to fix it.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: How to Use This Book
Part One: Why Does College Cost So Damn Much?
Chapter 1: The Cost of “Structural Liberalism” in Higher Education
Chapter 2: Does Structural Liberalism in Higher Education Serve Faculty or Students First?
Chapter 3: Do you want a K-Car or Porsche?
Chapter 4: What is the Tenure Tax?
Chapter 5: Who is Running this Place?
Chapter 6: The Rise of the Administrative Machine
Chapter 7: Cronyism
Chapter 8: Is Private Money Donated to Public Institutions Always Good?
Chapter 9: Revenue Predators
Chapter 10: Is that Degree Worth the Debt?
Chapter 11: What is a Dubious Degree?
Part Two: Combating the Higher Education Monopoly: Is Reform Enough?
Chapter 12: Reform or Revolution?
Chapter 13: Why are Deregulation and re-regulation Essential in Higher Education?
Chapter 14: Do we Really Need Student Loan Reform?
Chapter 15: Can We Really Reform Tenure?
Chapter 16: How Does a Student Find Value Right Now?
Epilogue
Glossary
Endnotes
About the Author

Reviews

Dean Kelsey's take on higher education is brash, thoughtful and comprehensive. It also comes from an "industry insider" who truly understands the current landscape. Kelsey identifies the problems...including our own role as a culture in driving up costs. He defines the tenure tax, and then brilliantly devises the reforms necessary to fix it. It’s a revolution of the serfs.
— David M. Salkin, author of the Team Book Series, including his latest, “Dangerous Ground”

This provocative examination of Higher Education will change the way everyone thinks about college selection, choice of major and student debt. Every family thinking about college for their children needs to read this book. Dean Kelsey has provides a practical and revolutionary roadmap that both identifies the problems in higher education and offers real solutions.
— Karen Lanpher, PhD, Psychologist, Business Executive

A must-read for anyone concerned about higher education. Richard Kelsey, the original "educational consumer," has effectively nailed his critique to higher education’s cathedral door. Kelsey launches a no holds barred, no quarter asked or given offensive on the educational establishment’s ruling elite. It is a view from the trenches that gives great advice and real, hard-learned warnings to parents and prospective students alike.
— Rob Bartenstein, Financial analyst/contributor to CNBC

Of Serfs and Lords

Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class

Richard Kelsey

Of Serfs and Lords

Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class

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