Is the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program Worth the Money?
Enrollment in North Carolina’s teacher-training programs is falling off even as classroom-instructor vacancies climb, two recent reports conclude. Amid the handwringing over these problematic trends, some policymakers are wondering about…
Don’t Racialize the College-Affordability Crisis
College affordability has long been an issue in this country. Given that the federal government’s subsidizing of higher education has allowed the cost of college to increase exponentially, many prospective…
How the UNC System is Propping Up Enrollment
Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment has been falling since 2010. The trend is being driven both by a shrinking pool of high-school graduates and those graduates choosing to attend universities at…
Reforms We’re Cheering For in 2023
Each January, the staff of the Martin Center share our higher-ed-reform dreams for the coming year. Will all of our wishes come true? Probably not. Nevertheless, we offer them here…
Wanted: A Successful Collegiate Rent-Seeker
Economists call someone who gets paid more than necessary to produce a good or service a “rent-seeker.” Arguably the preeminent rent-seeker in higher education, Terry Hartle, announced his retirement recently…
Can UNC-System Schools Afford to Show Taxpayers the Money?
Some North Carolina residents may not be aware of just how many of their tax dollars go to support the UNC System. Given the massive support provided by the state…
10 Books We Want Under the Tree in 2022
One of my favorite projects at the Martin Center is the cultivation of our higher-education library. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I vastly prefer to read books printed on paper instead…
Higher-Ed Philanthropy Survived the Pandemic
Philanthropic giving to educational institutions amounts to billions of dollars every year. Notably, the education sector has long been second only to the “religion” sector in the amount of money…
Private-College Presidents Make a Killing
Public-university presidents frequently earn large salaries, as the Martin Center has previously reported. However, their private-college peers are not exactly poor. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s recent article…
An American Law School, Then and Now
50 years ago, I was a first-year student at the University of Texas School of Law. Then, it occupied about the same place in the hierarchy of American law schools…