Here’s a Great Idea – Let’s Use Taxpayer Funds to Educate Chinese Students at U. S. Elite Graduate Schools

Just So We Can Save Taxpayer Monies

One area about everyone agrees upon is that the U. S. is facing very heavy competition in the global economy from China.  But the U. S. has at least one huge advantage.  College education, particularly graduate education in the U. S. is the finest in the world, and far better than any average Chinese graduate education.  So our graduate schools should be presenting the U. S. with a highly educated technical and managerial class that overwhelm the technical and managerial personnel of a country like China.

Not so fast.  In the U. S. the taxpayer revolt and the ardor for cutting taxes no matter what is resulting in starving U. S. colleges and universities for funds and pushing the cost of a college or post graduate education so high that graduates finish with a crushing burden of debt (unless they have Mitt Romney type money).  So colleges and universities have to look elsewhere for students who will and can pay the full cost of higher education.  And what better place to look than China.

More than ever, Chinese students have their sights set on U.S. graduate schools.

Application volume from that country rose 18% for U.S. master's and doctoral programs starting this fall, according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools that provides a preliminary measure of application trends. Specific programs of interest include engineering, business and earth sciences.

That is on top of a 21% jump last year and a 20% rise in 2010—and is the seventh consecutive year of double-digit gains from China, according to the graduate-school industry group. Applications from China now comprise nearly half of all international applications to U.S. graduate programs.

So another long term result of the terribly short sighted decision by voters to reward themselves with low taxes will be that what taxes they do pay will in part pay for education for Chinese students who will use that education to even further erode the U. S. competitive position in the world.  And universities are not just putting up with this trend, they are actively seeking Chinese students.

Ohio State University, with more than 10,000 graduate students, opened a "gateway" office in Shanghai in 2010 to coordinate recruiting, alumni activities and fundraising efforts in those markets. While international applications rose 18% for all the school's graduate programs this year, they jumped 29% from China specifically. That compares with a 3% increase in applications from India; the school opened a similar gateway office in Mumbai last month.

And you thought the Ohio State University, supported in large part by Ohio taxpayers, should work to educate the citizens of Ohio.  That’s silly.