Edwards only says things that he believe will snag voters, so he must have concluded that his “we must invest more in our research universities” line will have some traction for him. The trouble is that when he uses the word “invest,” he means that government should spend more money on our enormous higher ed establishment, such as increasing subsidies (“financial aid”) for students. But that isn’t an “investment.” One economist with the New York Fed argues that the more governments subsidize the cost of higher ed, the less effort students tend to put into it. That paper is available here.
I don’t know if anyone keeps track of this, but my hunch is that the private sector is investing more than ever in higher education by contracting with professors to do research and write books, papers, and articles. Such contract work has the great benefit of having to pass the test of the market. Even if a leftist foundation contracts for research and writing from a professor, it insists on getting value for the money.
When Edwards complains that “we” aren’t investing like we used to in our universities, I think he just means that government subsidies have gone down. Total university budgets, however, have not gone down, due to the infusion of funds from people who parted with their money voluntarily. If some good reporters figure out Edwards’ trick here, he’ll need to come up with a new sales pitch.
