Commodification of education
Melissa Jones
Issue date: 2/26/09 Section: World News
Is what Masake Kane, Howard University alumna, graduate student, and member of the Political Education and Action Committee, warns will possibly destroy the future of historically black colleges and universities across the country.
Recently the school's Board of Trustees, comprised of members like Earl G. Graves of Black Enterprise and the namesake of Morgan's School of Business, Richard Parsons, chairman of Time Warner, and John A. Thain, former CEO of Meryll Lynch; voted to increase tuition at Howard by 7.5 percent next year and by 12 percent each year after, for the next four years.
This marks the third year in a row that tuition has increased at Howard.
Through P.E.A.C., Ms. Kane and her colleagues hope to shed light on what they call a lack of transparency and mismanagement of funds at the university. "We receive more money than any other HBCU…we receive that money to keep tuition low."
According to Ms. Kane the university receives on average "$200 million a year from the federal government" she says, "and in the past five years- $1.2 billion - we've been receiving money like this since the inception of Howard."
Figures from the Department of Education website show that Howard received a total of $233,244 in federal appropriations for fiscal year 2008.
Ms. Kane contends that tuition compromises "only 20 percent or so of Howard's operating budget" and that it should be less. So there is no need to increase tuition in an increasingly difficult financial climate for each and every American, much less a student that attends an HBCU.
Financial woes are not a foreign concept to most historically black institutions as they have traditionally received considerably less funding and support than other universities. But the collapse of the U.S. financial market, the mortgage crisis, and a growing national deficit only further exacerbates the problem.
Students at Clark-Atlanta University recently protested the firing of 70 full-time faculty and 30 full-time staff members.
Recently the school's Board of Trustees, comprised of members like Earl G. Graves of Black Enterprise and the namesake of Morgan's School of Business, Richard Parsons, chairman of Time Warner, and John A. Thain, former CEO of Meryll Lynch; voted to increase tuition at Howard by 7.5 percent next year and by 12 percent each year after, for the next four years.
This marks the third year in a row that tuition has increased at Howard.
Through P.E.A.C., Ms. Kane and her colleagues hope to shed light on what they call a lack of transparency and mismanagement of funds at the university. "We receive more money than any other HBCU…we receive that money to keep tuition low."
According to Ms. Kane the university receives on average "$200 million a year from the federal government" she says, "and in the past five years- $1.2 billion - we've been receiving money like this since the inception of Howard."
Figures from the Department of Education website show that Howard received a total of $233,244 in federal appropriations for fiscal year 2008.
Ms. Kane contends that tuition compromises "only 20 percent or so of Howard's operating budget" and that it should be less. So there is no need to increase tuition in an increasingly difficult financial climate for each and every American, much less a student that attends an HBCU.
Financial woes are not a foreign concept to most historically black institutions as they have traditionally received considerably less funding and support than other universities. But the collapse of the U.S. financial market, the mortgage crisis, and a growing national deficit only further exacerbates the problem.
Students at Clark-Atlanta University recently protested the firing of 70 full-time faculty and 30 full-time staff members.
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posted 6/17/10 @ 11:59 AM EST
Dear Melissa Jones,
Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to find out if this is the same Masake Kane who was the coordinator of the Pan-Africanist Youth Summit which was held in Dakar at the end of May. (Continued…)
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