Over the last 60 years, college has changed a great deal — mostly for the worse. A big factor in that is the relationship between schools and students. In the old days, students enrolled to learn, and if they didn’t meet the academic expectations, they flunked out. But over time, college leaders became more concerned about maximizing the inflow of money, which required happy students. And students started to think, “We’re consumers and are entitled to get what we’re paying for.”

In today’s Martin Center article, Jovan Tripkovic looks at this regrettable situation:

In post–World War II America, a mix of factors — including a demographic boom and a surge in government funding — gradually pulled colleges and universities away from their original mission. Flush with G.I. Bill dollars and enrollees, institutions began broadening and democratizing their offerings, a shift that eventually led to today’s near-total emphasis on job training. Today, rather than cultivating civic and moral character or encouraging intellectual curiosity, many institutions have become little more than diploma mills and hedge funds with campuses.

As a result, we see inflated grades, dumbed-down courses, and colleges with hordes of needless administrators.

The good news is that some states are beginning to counter the consumer mentality. Tripkovic notes: “Utah’s General Education Act and South Carolina’s REACH Act are encouraging steps toward meaningful higher-education reform. The General Education Act seeks to realign the core curriculum at Utah’s public universities with the Western tradition of liberal education, while the REACH Act requires students at South Carolina’s public colleges to complete a course in American history or government. Both measures address urgent gaps in today’s higher-education landscape.”

It’s about time our leaders started thinking about ways to get more educational bang for fewer bucks.