According to NJN TV news (March 25), the state of New Jersey is contemplating encouraging all of its institutions of higher education, public and private, to find a way to offer a Bachelor’s degree for a total cost of no more than $10,000.00. I am convinced, based upon what I know of what is required in running a college or university, that if such a tuition program were actually ever to be required, only Princeton could survive, though for them also, it would be a losing proposition which could never be sustainable for any length of time.

Although this pending legislation seems to me to be totally unrealistic (and, in fact, ludicrous), the news program left me with the impression that the state legislature as a whole has no idea that the proposal is unrealistic, and feels that because the general public is outraged at the high cost of a college education, drastic action is required. The proposal currently seems to have the status of a legislative bill, and seems to have quite a bit of public support. The reporter on NJN TV who interviewed Kathleen Waldron, president of William Paterson University, certainly did not consider the proposal to be unrealistic, and President Waldron herself said that she had not run the numbers so she did not know whether it might be possible to offer a bachelor’s degree for $10,000.00 or less. In my opinion, this could have left the public with unrealistic assumptions which could easily cause higher education to cease in New Jersey.

So does anyone happen to know—is all of this merely a publicity stunt in which colleges and universities will only be asked to study the matter with no expectation of results, or are all of the colleges and universities in New Jersey truly in jeopardy? Has the state department of education offered any opinions on this bill to help the legislature and the people of the state of New Jersey to realize that the bill is totally unrealistic? If not, should New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education David C. Hepse be asked whether he intends to make a statement on this question in order to bring the legislature to its senses? I really don’t think New Jersey wants to do anything to shut down most or all of its colleges and universities, but I see a real danger of that happening if nothing is done to help people to understand the true costs involved in running a college or a university.