Are Colleges Using Their Space Wisely?

(From RealClearPolicy):

By Thomas K. Lindsay

Texas, the country’s second-largest state, will commence its next legislative session in January. Among the bills already introduced (during the “pre-filing” session), two seek slightly less than $3 billion in “Tuition Revenue Bonds” for new college-campus construction, which the universities would subsequently pay back through increasing student tuition.

On its face, such expansion seems natural for the Lone Star State, whose population is booming. Voting with their feet for the jobs created by Texas’s relatively lower taxes and common-sense regulatory environment, many have been flocking to Texas (487 a day, net) recently. A bigger population means more college students, who would seem to require more college spaces — more classrooms, laboratories, dorms, and the like — to accommodate them. But is this necessarily the case?  CONTINUE READING HERE