Universities: Handouts and Inefficiencies Burning Tax Dollars?
Reader asks compelling questions about international students and efficiency.
Reader Submitted Question: "… I’ve noticed that the computer science program at the University of South Dakota is almost exclusively comprised of foreign students.… Dakota State University has a better program anyway.”
Why are we using South Dakota tax dollars to subsidize students who are not from the United States?
The South Dakota taxpayers are spending almost $320 million each year to subsidize state colleges and universities (see page 9 of the budget). Full price tuition and fees at the University of South Dakota (USD) is about $13,000 per year (four year total: about $52,000). The University of South Dakota website provides information on the costs for international students. If a foreigner starts as a freshman and has good high school grades and high SAT or ACT scores, this person could see a $6500 per year tuition reduction (four year tuition reduction: $26,000). The other state universities (Dakota State, SDSU, South Dakota Mines, etc. also have scholarship options that are based on grades and test scores.
If the state university system was completely self-sufficient this might not be an issue, but asking the taxpayers to pickup the tab for international students seems a bit unreasonable. If there are 1000 of these students in the South Dakota university system, that could mean the taxpayers are providing the foreigners a $26,000,000 handout.
I can see why real estate developers and rental companies would want to use taxpayer money for international students handouts because it means they can rent more apartments. However, it does seem unfair to the hundreds of thousands of South Dakota residents that are not in on that gig. In fact, we are guessing most South Dakota taxpayers would be able to find better uses for their money.
Why do we need computer science programs at more than one state university?
That is an excellent question. It is normally much more cost effective to have things that are similar together. As a result, one would guess it would be much more efficient to have everyone who is in the same major at the same school. Logically, this would mean less faculty (less salaries), less building infrastructure, and less maintenance which ultimately means less costs to the taxpayer. One has to wonder if this change alone could reduce the amount the state has to spend on post secondary education by hundreds of millions a year.
The reader who submitted this question should be speaking in the South Dakota Legislature now. Exploring ways we could save the South Dakota taxpayers hundreds of millions per year should be a BIG deal.
Thank you for the article. Everything seems so imbalanced. Personally I think every tax funded University that has endowments over XX million (fill in the X) should have a reduction in their student funding formula. And, these SD students should come first for breaks on tuition.
You have identified a very small part of a very large problem at the six public universities overseen by the South Dakota Board of Regents.
It seems to me that an examination by an outside auditing firm should be done to determine whether or not the Universities in question are actually a good value for the taxpayers of South Dakota.
I think the results would be shocking.