Economists call someone who gets paid more than necessary to produce a good or service a “rent-seeker.”
Arguably the preeminent rent-seeker in higher education, Terry Hartle, announced his retirement recently from his position as chief lobbyist at the American Council of Education (ACE). Terry is a master at the rent-seeking craft, persuasive in cajoling legislators into approving laws that lead to vast numbers of dollars being dropped onto college campuses.
Some of those dollars have allowed academics to do things we otherwise couldn’t have done—to live a better life. When speaking to legislative groups, I often assert, “I want to thank you for letting me rip off taxpayers for dozens of years.” While we are far from unique, many of us in academia get paid at least a bit more than necessary to perform our services.
While we are far from unique, many of us in academia get paid more than necessary to perform our services.
ACE is the largest and most influential group lobbying for America’s colleges and universities. Terry Hartle had a career working for the American Enterprise Institute (we were briefly coworkers there) and the U.S. Senate (where, too, I once worked) before joining ACE in the 1990s. I have always found him bright, persuasive, affable, and a person of integrity. I have testified along with him at congressional hearings.
In these settings, Terry has been extremely effective in convincing Congress to spend more dollars on colleges. The federal government’s role in higher education has grown during his ACE tenure, in my judgment to the detriment not only of long-suffering taxpayers, but probably of higher education itself. The additional federal dollars have generally proven to be inefficiency-inducing if not downright corrupting.