GLAD THEY NOTICED – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  It is announced that the president and first lady will hold a White House conference on college costs.  I'm so grateful that our dear leaders have discovered that college is expensive.  But their approach is absurd.  From The Hill:

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will host an event on college affordability next Thursday at the White House.

Okay, now let's see the fine print.

...Carney said the daylong conference would focus specifically on helping “young people from disadvantaged backgrounds” get into and complete college.

Oh, so that's what it's about.  I would suggest they concentrate on getting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to excel in high school.  There are plenty of opportunities for them if they do that.   They might also concentrate on the culture of failure that often grips disadvantaged communities.  Change the culture, you change the outcome.  But it is forbidden to ask cultural questions, so they won't go there. 

Also, typical of liberals, the conference apparently will talk about college costs, but not about how those costs became so inflated.  Who will have the courage to note that the University of California system, over the last decade, has hired more administrators than educators?  Who will note the proliferation of special-interest departments created to satisfy political demands?  Yessirree, we really do need another department studying the history of left-handed poets in Micronesia.  I can't wait for the textbooks. 

Want college affordability?  Cut the amount that colleges spend.

This conference will probably amount to nothing.  The Obamans are good talkers, little else.

January 12, 2014