Subsidies Feed College Bureaucrats

Virginia's colleges have seen soaring administrative costs, and education experts say government subsidies fueled the boom

ALEXANDRIA — Virginia's increasingly pricey colleges and universities are pumping more and more into administration, and some experts say government subsidies are partly to blame.

Administrative spending is outpacing instructional spending at Virginia's colleges and universities, the flagship University of Virginia included.

With state and federal aid cushioning the blow to students and boosting college coffers, institutions don't have to make fiscally responsible decisions on how to spend their money, said Jay Greene, head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. His work on an August 2010 Goldwater Institute report — "Administrative Bloat at American Universities" — ruffled plenty of feathers at institutions of higher learning.