Times are changing for higher education in America. The fat years are in the past and the future will be lean — fewer students, fewer dollars. Quite a few schools have closed in recent years and it’s probable that many more will, unless they can adapt to the new normal.

Why colleges have trouble adapting is the subject of a book by Brian Rosenberg, a former college president: Whatever It Is, I’m Against It. I review it today for the Martin Center.

The big problem is that the non-profit governance structure of the great majority of our colleges comes with several big obstacles to change. Instead of just deciding what must be done, college leaders have to negotiate with campus interest groups that often prefer a dozy status quo to change that hurts them. Rosenberg is unquestionably right about that.

Unfortunately, he chose to pad his book with a number of ideological fights that weren’t germane to his case. To mention just one, he declares that higher ed is innocent of William Bennett’s charge that schools raised tuition because federal student aid money made it easy for them to do so. He relies on William Baumol’s exculpatory claim that they had no choice because faculty productivity is low. I argue to the contrary.

Nevertheless, colleges — other than those with huge endowments — are going to struggle in the future. He’s very worried about that. I’m not. Higher ed badly needs a lot of creative destruction because it wastes a lot of resources. If lots of old-model colleges are replaced by for-profit ones that focus on real education, that would be good.