----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Sure. It's the way the aid is given from a large centralized Washington bureaucracy that is the problem. Washington subsidizes more bureaucracy, encourages fee increases because then more aid flows to the universities through student loans, etc. Since somebody else pays, parents and students get more "counselors" "facilitators" "centers" etc. and less basic instruction. It's the third-party payer syndrome, magnified because of the distance between the recipient and the federal government. Locally raised taxes, such as state taxes, have a tighter set of strings attached. Which is why the education bureaucrats prefer federal aid. This affects film and television education as well, since at UCLA many production MFA candidates failed to graduate because they had run up huge debts and would have had to begin repayment on graduation. Current student loan program also encourgaes turning students into deadbeats for same reasons. As I pointed out in an email in this regard, UCLA, for example had Kenneth Magowan of Twentieth Century Fox on the faculty from 1948 to teach radio, film and television. They also had Von Sternberg. No student loan program. Tuition was free. Larry Jarvik