(NRSC News) – Joe Biden has promised federal student loan forgiveness but its cost to the American people will be steep, if it ever comes to pass.
Over the summer, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business “found the plan would cost $605 billion over the next decade under strict assumptions, but the price tag in other conditions could grow to more than $1 trillion, a scenario the researchers said ‘requires further study,’” The Hill reported.
The Biden regime, however, doesn’t really care too much about what it costs working Americans. The only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because a federal judge put a hold on it. Rest assured that the regime still has every intention to see that a staggering amount of federal student debt is “forgiven.”
As if it isn’t bad enough that hard-working Americans, including you and I, could soon be on the hook for someone else’s debt that we had nothing to do with, what makes the whole thing so much worse is what universities are actually spending the millions of dollars they rake in every year on.
The Western Journal revealed an analysis by University of Michigan emeritus professor Mark Perry which found his former institution dishes out a whopping $18 million in salary pay to employees specifically involved in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
That’s right. America’s biggest universities are spending millions of dollars promoting the radical left’s woke agenda and the Biden regime wants you to pay for it.
In a Tweet on Thursday, Perry shared a list of the “diversicrats” salaries on Twitter. The Daily Caller News Foundation asserted the information was found via public records.
As per the list, the highest paid — Tabbye Sellers, vice provost of equity and inclusion — is making a shocking $380,000 during the 2022-23 school year. Five of the DEI employees were making over $200,000, with 44 of them making over $100,000.
@UMich now employs 142 "diversicrats" at an annual cost of $18M (total compensation) = in-state tuition for 1,075 students. Highest paid diversicrat is Tabbye Sellers @$380K+fringe benefits. Avg. = $97K and 44 make > $100K + fringe benefits. 10 years ago, UM diversicrats<20. pic.twitter.com/xU1PISR8Br
— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) January 5, 2023
“In my opinion, most colleges like UM are spending way too much money on DIE efforts, and it’s incredibly wasteful because those efforts are part of advancing the new DIE religion in higher education and directly contradict the core mission of a university — to educate students, teach critical thinking and expose them to intellectual diversity — in favor of pursuing misguided goals of social justice, racial justice, and gender justice,” Perry told the DCNF.
“Those misguided and expensive DIE resources could be better spent by reducing tuition instead of feeding new layers of costly administrative bloat that end up getting passed along to students in the form of higher tuition and fees.”
Colleges have been rapidly adding to their workforce since the start of this century. A 2014 study by the American Institutes for Research’s Delta Cost Project found “overarching trends show that between 2000 and 2012, the public and private nonprofit higher education workforce grew by 28 percent, more than 50 percent faster than the previous decade.”
“Growth in administrative jobs was widespread across higher education — but creating new professional positions, rather than executive and managerial positions, is what drove the increase,” the study found. “Professional positions (for example, business analysts, human resources staff, and admissions staff) grew twice as fast as executive and managerial positions at public nonresearch institutions between 2000 and 2012, and outpaced enrollment growth.”
At the University of Michigan, Perry says DIE hirings have “metastasized like a cancer.”
Just in the last 5 years the UM DIE staff has grown by 53 percent, his analysis showed. He further noted that just 20 years ago it would have been impossible to know the statistics of DIE staff growth since not a single staff member had the words “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion” in their job title.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the DIE staff hit triple digits which just so happened to come after the 2020 riots that were done in the name of everything DIE.
Perry also released an analysis of Ohio State University showing the same exorbitant DIE staff spending:
Just out today: @OhioState has a small army of 132 "diversicrats" at an avg. salary of $77,000 and total est. payroll cost of $13.4M, which would cover in-state tuition for 1,120 students https://t.co/C80vP05kvJ @jennsmola @CollegeFix @FreemanWSJ @stevenfhayward @charliekirk11 pic.twitter.com/piuXgBy4Rv
— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) December 6, 2021
The Western Journal pointed out, “To be fair, this 2021-22 analysis found that the highest-paid employee only made $289,000 and that the estimated DEI payroll cost was $13.4 million — enough for in-state tuition for 1,120 students.”
The outlet also declared that this is just the money being “flushed down the toilet” for DIE staff. It doesn’t include any money spent on DIE initiatives or programs, which are aplenty at America’s woke schools.
No wonder student debt is astronomical and only continues to grow exponentially.
Taxpayers certainly shouldn’t be forced to cover this reckless spending. Instead of forgiving student debt it’s time for the federal government to put these universities in check.
Copyright 2023. NRSCNews.org
