By Richard J. Bishirjian, Ph.D. June 24, 2003

Professional baseball, one of Yorktown University's friends reports, gives "first pick" of new players in baseball's annual "draft" to the league's weakest teams:

In other words, the intention of ... the team owners -- is to benefit their sport as a whole over the long run by giving an artificial boost to the worst and to hinder the best. The most powerful deliberately hold themselves down because they believe that permitting dynasties to form and entrench would seriously harm their sport.

The underlying assumption in professional baseball is this:

What's best for the game is not to dominate young teams, but to grow the League -- introducing better competition -- by improving the weakest of its members.

Professional ball teams are for-profit companies, but owners are willing to reduce their immediate income for a longer-term gain.

In higher education -- traditionally operated by non-profit institutions, or by state government institutions funded by taxpayers -- the opposite principle governs.

Barriers surround the education marketplace at every level of entry and have effectively kept costs high, squelched reform, favored the rich (tenured Faculty) over the poor (hundreds of thousands of part time Adjunct Faculty, and graduate students), and grown university bureaucracies at the expense of classroom teaching.

In Virginia, the State Higher Education Council for Virginia (SCHEV), which is the state's most powerful regulatory body -- composed of non-elected Council members appointed, mostly, by Governors no longer in office --has increased state regulations to a new level of "licensure" that will make it impossible for new institutions to enter the state.

Virginia -- which has fewer private colleges than most other states -- by the actions of non-elected state officials, has locked the door to creation of new colleges in the state, and, unfortunately, the operation of existing Internet Universities in Virginia. [American Military University that had approval to operate in Virginia since 1992 left the state to operate from West Virginia last year. Yorktown University has announced that it is leaving the state this year.]

Why? To protect "independent" colleges and universities, and, of course, state universities, from competition and low tuition costs that new technologies may bring.

The higher education "Cartel" in Virginia has been slow to invest in Internet course delivery systems, and state legislators, and most state university presidents believe that more state funding (and protection) is the solution.

As a result, tuition costs remain high at all private institutions, state subsidized tuition costs increase, and the citizens of Virginia are asked to pay higher tariffs while education opportunity decreases, and less expensive ways of providing educational products are ignored.

Once SCHEV has done its work, the regional accrediting association governing Virginia, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), steps in to close the door to competition even tighter.

SACS has never accredited a university that is solely Internet-based!

The first Internet University was founded in 1987, and SACS has received at least two applications for accreditation by an Internet University, but has never granted regional accreditation.

If you thought that was the end of the erection of barriers to new competition in higher education, take time to learn something about CHEA!

The Council for Higher Education Associations, which "coordinates" all U.S. government chartered accrediting associations, is the "industry" lobbyist that engages in a professionally designed disinformation campaign to promote "accreditation" as an important standard of education quality.

Accreditation, of course, speaks nothing about educational quality, but, rather, is a symbol of "licensure," like the "medallion" that licensed taxicabs in most cities must purchase in order to enter the carriage trade.

Accreditation is the education Cartel's "mark," not unlike "union labels," trademarks, and other symbols that are used to distinguish products and imply that one is "good" and another is not.

By the simple word "accreditation," CHEA distinguishes its members from those "unaccredited." The entire process smacks of a high level of Madison Avenue marketing savvy not usually associated with an industry that promotes itself as serving the public interest.

Finally, lurking behind this massive effort to restrict competition is a little known and understood provision of federal law by which only "accredited" colleges and universities may offer their students federal guaranteed loans and tuition assistance.

Unlike basebal -- that gives new teams a jump start on acquiring the best athletes entering the sport -- the Education Cartel, with the complicity of the U.S. Department of Education, draws a hangman's noose tighter around the necks of new competition in education.

So, students of the growth of the Administrative State will not be surprised, that this story about America's Education Cartel begins with government regulation at the state level and ends in government regulation at the federal level.

The end result should not surprise: very serious educational decline has occurred. Most notably, the epidemic-like spread of "political correctness" on American campuses may be traced to the linkage between access to federal guaranteed loans and US government chartered "accreditation."

If only accredited (whatever that means) colleges and universities may offer federal loans, then they have no competition from institutions based on new technologies, and the academic Cartel may ignore market forces.

Instead of competing on the basis of product quality -- a better football team; a league leading baseball team; high profile collegiate golf champions; most Noble Laureates; pretty cheerleaders; a fine music department, or low tuition costs -- all that accredited institutions need tell prospective students is that they are purveyors of "US government financial aid."

Go the Web page of any college or university, and try to find out what tuition costs are.

Very few tell you.

What they do tell prospect students is how to apply for federal funding, grants or loans.

In other words, don't go to that other, unaccredited, school; the Cartel makes it possible for you to go here for "free."

That's the ethical climate that pervades the higher education Cartel -- selling lifelong indebtedness to adolescents!

The end result? America's middle class is driven to send its students to state subsidized schools, or, burden their children, or themselves, with extraordinary debt.

I spoke to a salesman for web products Yorktown University uses who told me that he had incurred indebtedness from student loans of $100,000. Though he went to a "name" university, I wonder if, at age 18, he had a chance to reflect on what he was getting into, he would have recognized that the "name" on his resume isn't worth $100,000.

Parents, students -- and traditional private institutions operating with a 19th century business model -- are hurt, and hurt badly by today's crazy-quilt higher education regulatory environment. Isn't that the defining mark of "sin" -- the sinner is the one injured?

Let me describe, therefore, the current situation in simple moral terms: today's higher education Cartel is sinful.

Yorktown University's Gary Wolfram writes about this in a sobering essay published by the Cato Institute. His analysis is "must reading" for anyone concerned about higher education in America today. You may read his report by clicking here: http://www.yorktownuniversity.com/wolfram_ind_ed.html

Richard J. Birshirjian, Ph.d. is founding president of Yorktown University in Virginia.

Contact: rjb@yorktownuniversity.com