Of Serfs and Lords: Why College Tuition is Creating a Debtor Class

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Description

This book identifies the causes of rising college tuitions. It identifies a system of policies, practices, and regulations that have converted higher education into an inefficient system that serves the interest of the tenured class and professional educators over that of the students. Using statistics, analysis, and examples, the author identifies and names the culprit behind these tuition increases as structural and cultural liberalism, all of which has created a tax on students and tuition payers. The author calls this inefficiency the tenure tax. The book examines how to find value in the current system, and it offers reforms in the form of an education revolution to remake higher education. He advocates for changes from how it hires and contracts with professors, to the role of government and private lending. The thesis of the book is simple: The current system is creating a debtor class of Serfs, studying dubious majors not useful in the job market. The result is that institutions are hunting revenue to feed and pay the elite class, the faculty and administrators, who have become Lords in this educational feudal system.

Reviews

Dean Kelsey's take on higher education is brash, thoughtful and comprehensive. It also comes from an "industry insider" who truly understands the current landscape. Kelsey identifies the problems...including our own role as aculture in drivingup costs. He defines the tenure tax, and then brilliantly devises the reforms necessary to fix it. Its a revolution of the serfs. -- David M. Salkin, author of the Team Book Series, including his latest, Dangerous Ground
This provocative examination of Higher Education will change the way everyone thinks about college selection, choice of major and student debt.Every family thinking about college for their children needs to read this book. Dean Kelsey has provides apractical and revolutionary roadmap that both identifiesthe problems in highereducationand offers real solutions. -- Karen Lanpher, PhD, Psychologist, Business Executive
A must-read for anyone concerned about higher education. Richard Kelsey, the original "educational consumer," has effectively nailed his critique to higher educations cathedral door. Kelsey launches a no holds barred, no quarter asked or given offensive on the educational establishments ruling elite. It is a view from the trenches that gives great advice and real, hard-learned warnings to parents and prospective students alike. -- Rob Bartenstein, Financial analyst/contributor to CNBC

Author Bio

Richard Kelsey is a former assistant law school and technology CEO. He is a trial lawyer and recognized legal expert who examines whats wrong in higher education and proposes real solutions to fix it.