I’ve long been concerned about the state of state colleges. In article that I wrote for the Atlantic last year, I talked about the growing reliance on adjuncts to teach undergraduate classes, their exploitation (do you really want your daughter’s professor to get paid less than a McDonald’s worker?), and the pressure on tenured faculty to publish at the expense of classroom teaching.

This morning, the Chronicle revisits this issue. There is less money for needy kids at state colleges, as colleges compete for slots on the ranking lists. Scholarships are going to athletics and high academic achievers. With the decline in state funding, they recruit out-of-state students who will pay higher tuition.