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Shortly following the December 1 meeting of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the OU Board of Regents met in Norman and voted to approve President David Boren’s appointment of former Oklahoma state Sen. Jonathan Nichols as vice president of governmental relations.

On December 1, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education voted to seek $957.9 million for fiscal year 2018—an increase of 18.3 percent over the current year’s budget.

History is replete with examples of obvious yet incorrect answers. The sun revolves around the earth. Labor inputs determine a good’s value. Now, another example has emerged. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, an obvious—yet ultimately incorrect—explanation for the rise in college tuition has gained currency.

OKLAHOMA CITY—Alan Neitzel served for nearly 30 years at Rose State College before retiring in December of 2015 as the director of grants and contracts. During his time, Neitzel said he was witness to innumerable instances of fraud and waste at the college, sometimes by his own office. He said that public education at all levels in Oklahoma is fraught with rampant waste, and taxpayers should not give any more money to state-funded education until the dollars they currently receive are handled responsibly and transparently.

Black Lives Matter student-activists recently staged a “die-in” at the University of Oklahoma. I think you’ll agree, nothing says “we shall overcome” quite like (significantly taxpayer subsidized) 19-year-olds with hand-held supercomputers lying on the ground posting selfies on Instagram.

As Perspective readers well know, OCPA is devoted to public policy research and analysis. But what you may not realize is that in OCPA’s 22-year history we also have raised $127,000 and awarded it to Oklahoma students to attend college. That’s a pretty substantial amount, especially when you consider that scholarship-granting is not even our mission as an organization. But it shows just how strongly we believe in higher education.

Death, taxes, and rising college prices—these are among life’s few certainties. Tuition and fees increases over the past five years at Oklahoma’s public higher education system are among the country’s highest, according to The College Board. The State Regents for Higher Education blame “underfunding,” but that excuse doesn’t hold water.

The U.S. Census Bureau keeps track of all types of data on Oklahoma’s higher education system. The chart below uses Census data to examine the dramatic size and growth in the number of non-instructional workers (per 100 private-sector workers) in Oklahoma’s higher education system.

Tuition at Oklahoma’s 25 public colleges and universities will go up an average of 8.4 percent this year, the Associated Press reports. Hikes for undergraduates will range from Langston’s 3.7 percent boost to about 13 percent at Rose State.

American consumers have come to expect lower cost and higher quality (think of that miraculous-yet-affordable supercomputer you’re carrying around in your pocket). This week the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the 1889 Institute, and former Gov. Frank Keating kicked off a conversation meant to bring the lower cost/higher quality dynamic to one place it is conspicuously lacking – higher education.