"They really should know better. This really is political theater of the worst sort," Young said. . . . Western Washington University President Bruce Shepard accused Obama of blaming the victim. Universities aren't gouging students; state government is taking care of that on its own, he said. "The fact is the taxpayers have pulled their money back," Shepard said. Thanks to university efficiency, the full cost to educate students at Western has gone down since 2003 - from $9,818 to $9,630. But the share of that cost covered by tuition has risen from $4,000 in 2003 to $6,468 this year. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017355533_a...
If the federal gov't mandates that tuition doesn't increase, but the legislature cuts funds further, then what? The math doesn't add up, so it sounds like election year pandering to me.
If I were a university though, I would be scared right now and not just because of this "warning", but because of this too: http://hubski.com/pub?id=14940 -Pretty cool.
Once a framework has been laid down, classes can constantly be revised without the pressures of teachers also having to review for the same lecture every year. The quality can only go up! And instead of being stuck with that one shitty math teacher at your university, you can pick from the most popular online ones because suddenly they can teach a thousand students simultaneously with no significant increase in effort on their part. You'll still have to maintain some organized group of teachers to answer individuals' questions and practice one-on-one or in small groups, but even part of that can be optimized away with online class discussion systems like piazza. Hell, maybe Watson might even be able to answer frequently asked questions.