One of the crucial treasured tenets of the American Dream is that adults will leave to their children a greater world than they inherited. The main target was at all times on the betterment of our kids.

Tragically, that aspiration is being assigned to the ash heap of history as fast gratification and greed rise to the fore. Nationally, our adult leaders haven’t balanced the federal budget in greater than 20 years and have been using the tax system to lighten the burden on the affluent while passing on the debt to the young.

Then, after all, our love of sports is so uncontrolled that we use public monies to subsidize billionaire team owners with luxury stadiums while reducing our commitment to education. In Minneapolis, Minnesota taxpayers are still paying off the $150 million of debt plus interest incurred to fund a football stadium for a billionaire owner while imposing draconian cuts to its schools.

To not be outdone, the regents and presidents of the University of Minnesota have increasingly been moving increasingly more assets away from struggling students and into the pockets of overpaid administrators. Currently our undergraduates on the University of Minnesota are paying $3,000 a yr more in tuition than the national average for public universities, which incorporates $1,700 greater than the national average that universities incur per student in administrative costs.

The university itself reports that student life is becoming increasingly unaffordable with 43.6% of undergraduates frightened “concerning the ability to pay for housing” and one other 20% enduring “food insecurity.” Just imagine the stress and poor nutrition this causes.

And all of the while, the regents and top administrators are focused on improving their very own well-being. This mustn’t surprise us because previous reports have shown that the university pays its administrators far higher salaries than all levels of presidency from municipal to county to state to federal. For example, the overall counsel for the university makes greater than $200,000 greater than our state’s attorney general and $100,000 greater than the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and a few $150,000 greater than the US Secretary of State.

All too typical of this differential was the hiring by the University of Minnesota of Myron Frans, the state’s Commissioner of Management and Budget in August of 2020. Although the positions were comparable, the pay differential was significant. Frans’ compensation moved from $158,000 on the state level to $399,000 plus one other $50,000 to $80,000 in deferred compensation together with a way more generous pension. Interestingly, the University of Minnesota was within the midst of a $166 million shortfall on the time.

Since 1991, the college’s president’s salary has soared some 500% from $152,300 to $805,950 not including retirement contributions and other advantages that put the entire well over $1 million. Meanwhile, tuition and costs for college kids has risen from $2,728 to $15,859. Unlike 1991, students can not work their way through college and, subsequently, many depend on students loans. On the common, this involves over $25,000 for a 4 yr undergraduate degree.

And, although the university president makes two and a half times greater than the President of the US, that has been deemed insufficient. Now she also serves on the Securian Financial Corporate Board for an extra $130,000 a yr. Despite the undeniable fact that Securian manages and oversees the University’s massive multi-billion dollar retirement system, President Joan Gabel and the regents see no conflict of interest. They tell us that university officials who report back to Gabel will take care of university worker life insurance and retirement accounts with Securian and protect us from any conflicts of interest.

Continuing of this path is destructive. University governance needs a whole turnabout that genuinely focuses on our young. It cannot just be a straightforward tuition freeze but reasonably a whole overhaul with major reductions in administrative costs. The regents or the legislature should Set the university president’s salary at a figure that doesn’t exceed that of the President of the US. This needs to be a normal for all public entities that receive federal funds. This motion essentially trims the excesses of the past and restores a healthier balance.

The Minnesota Legislature should institute an independent commission to analyze the various scandals on the university and the large costs they impose on the scholars and public. Currently, the university is “investigating” the allegations of “fraud” which have been brought by the medical/scientific community against the Alzheimer Research Project. The National Institute of Health pegs the prices within the billions of dollars. To guarantee independence, the Legislature needs to ascertain guidelines for this investigation and others prefer it.

Suffice it to say, that the University’s management and oversight of those medical research projects has not only been wholly inadequate but they’ve been severely criticized nationally and internationally from the Latest York Times headline “The University of Minnesota’s Medical Research Mess” to  Forbes’  “Why the University of Minnesota’s Research Scandal Threatens Us All” to the apparent query raised by Minnesota Public Radio; “Why Do Scandals Keep Happening on the University of Minnesota?”

In essence, the university is paying extraordinary salaries for harmful results.

The governor should create a council of independent experts to work with the regents and university leadership to steadily lower administrative and other overhead costs while lowering student tuition with the goal of creating student loans unnecessary. This also means integrating the athletic department into the answer. Nothing needs to be off the table.

The governor and legislature should put aside $1 billion in a student foundation fund using the annual proceeds from investment (roughly $50 million) for purposes of lowering student tuition in any respect Minnesota public institutions now. The state currently has a $17.6 billion surplus. This $1 billion investment could be a one-time expenditure. As well as, this same approach ($1 billion put aside in a foundation and invested with the proceeds going to this system) may very well be utilized to fund revolutionary programs in K-12.

The general goal have to be to ensure to our kids access to a high quality and inexpensive educational experience in order that they are properly equipped to guide us through the large challenges of climate change and the restoration of a growing middle class democracy.

Arne H. Carlson is a former Governor of Minnesota (1991-1999). Richard Painter is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Law with the University of Minnesota.