Is it time for college students to be calling home?

When you’re going to college should you stay close to home or go away to a private school with ridiculous tuition, room and board?

Of course, I’m biased.

I am a product of public college education and think that I came out as well as another peer of mine who is Vanderbilt educated (even though I paid THOUSANDS less than she did overall).

Since the recession, many new students are opting to stay in their home states to attend college rather that go to other states to get their bachelor’s or master’s degrees.

Public universities are hurting for money. My business school’s professors are encouraged to not print syllabus among other necessary documents.

Over the past a small amount of years, the financial organization of public universities has changed radically. States no longer fund the accounts for the majority of a school’s budget. A school is lucky if the state supports 20% of a college’s overall budget. For example, William and Mary’s college for the 08-09 school year was only funded 18% by taxpayer dollars. In the 1970’s, taxpayers funded 43% of the school’s budget. “At this point, we’re a privately supported university that also gets some meaningful state aid,” says W. Taylor Reveley III, president of William & Mary.

To make up the divergence, public universities have got to rely on tuition and charges to pay for the majority of the budgetary requirements; because of this, many state schools work hard to be a magnet for out of state students, who will pay a premium, sometimes more than three times as much as residents, to attend.

“Given the way that states are cutting back on funds, to replace an in-state student with an out-of-state student, particularly if you can capture some of that revenue for your own purposes, is a good thing financially for schools,” says John Maguire, chairman and founder of Maguire Associates, a research-based consulting firm specializing in educational institutions.

So I suppose sometimes it comes down to whether you want to go in state or out of state and the cost you may incur.

If you live in Alabama, congratulations, you can go to Auburn. If you live in Mississippi you get to go to … Ole Miss.

Flash orders give some traders an edge in the purchase or sale of their stocks. The advantage is only a split second advantage, but it is enough to get the attention of the SEC.

For the next 60 days, the change will be up for public comment and could be adopted by the SEC after that time.

Flash orders are one of those things that sometimes occurs in the trading world. They really have started to become quite a hot issue on Wall Street though due to people asking questions about fairness on the Street.

From MSNBC:
A flash order refers to certain members of exchanges — often big companies — buying and selling reports about continuing stock deals milliseconds prior to that information being made public. A number of big banks and financial companies, using high-speed PC programs, can get a speedy, sneak peep at how additional investors are trading, giving them a brief peek into the direction of the market.

The other rule on the table includes more transparency from credit rating companies. For its role in the subprime mortgage mess, the industry that performs credit ratings has been shamed. The practices of these companies (which includes Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, as well as Fitch Ratings) will be able to be seen by the public and will also be subject to restraints.

It is not fair when some companies have the ability to trade before the general public is allowed to do so. When there are ultra high speed computers and company information and reports available, then of course they will have an small advantage. I do not believe that the flash ordering has been exactly beneficial to a lot of companies on Wall Street because if you look at how many companies have performed over the past few months and especially when you look at the last year, you can tell that they are not exactly doing great. Many of the banks and financial institutions have only remained open only by the grace of our taxpayer dollars.

I am glad that they will no longer be helped out by any of the money that I pay the government. I know that the general public of the United States is ready to go after the boards of many of these companies because of all the bonuses that they seem to be raking in every couple of months; and I have to agree with the general public on this one.

These rules can be seen at the MSNBC article I’ve linked below. I would like to see what the SEC does with the public comments over the next two months. In 60 days, we will see how the market is doing and I am sure that will have some impact on the SEC’s decision as to what it is going to do with the new rules.

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