College Spending on Instruction: Down. On Lawn Care: Up.

It’s true. An article in USA Today describes the findings of a recent study on the changing allocation of funds on college campuses across the country. As tuition rises, investment in classroom instruction is actually falling. (Read the full report here.) Money is being funneled toward non-teaching expenses such as: “computing centers, student services, administrative salaries and lawn care.”

Lawn care. Do these people not know about sustainable landscaping?

But we can’t point fingers at the university administrators without pointing at ourselves as well. How do our expectations affect these rising costs? Do our kids want to go to a university with brown grass?

Of course, this report is evidence that the increasing emphasis on running colleges as businesses is shafting our kids in terms of education. How can a nonprofit university–with a mission of providing education–raise tuition for struggling families and earmark those funds for expenses unrelated to educating students?

Easy. It’s the capitalistic way. Somewhere along the line, universities have lost their focus on what matters most, and in order to compete with other colleges for students to pay the bills, they are “forced” to make cuts in the most critical areas.

But parents are partly to blame as well. Here’s why: we have trained our kids to value style over substance. Whether we did it intentionally or not, we’ve managed to raise kids who are focused on brands, who value sleek styling and party potential over learning, and who view college as a last blast before entering the world of work. Universities recognize that kids and parents drool over colleges with good looks (new dorms, fancy fitness centers and the like) and they respond by investing in cosmetic upgrades rather than classroom instruction.

Parents and students are the ones who have to get crafty in order to find the best education environments. The good news is that there ARE some great deals on schools, and there’s no need to sacrifice learning in the name of picture-perfect campuses.

Bold Schoolers across the US are figuring out how to get an outstanding education that doesn’t cost a fortune, and they know that picking a college based on light-filled student union buildings and green grass is an Old-School strategy that is outdated and detrimental.

The key: concentrate on finding small classrooms, great mentors, and inspired teaching rather than the premium “college experience” with all the bells and whistles. College should not be a four-year resort stay, and students who are committed to learning will rise above their peers who are content to lounge. You can get a good education almost anywhere, but if your student is picking a college because its campus is beautiful and the dorms are big and sunny, you might want to reassess priorities.

College costs are market driven–they charge what they can get and invest in whatever will attract students. We as parents have more power than you might think: if we start demanding (and choosing) excellent instruction over prettiness, we can shift this trend.

Of course, in a dream-house world with dazzling decks and magazine-worthy outdoor living spaces, we have our own issues regarding choosing a more utilitarian campus for our kids. The change, it would seem, begins with us.

Tagged as: college campus, college choice, college costs, college expenditures, college faculty, college instruction, Delta Project, sustainable landscaping, university administration, university budgets, university costs, university spending, USA Today