The stories about government shutdown dominate the news on October 1, 2013 morning. How will the shutdown affect colleges’ operation? Hopefully nothing now!

Well, at least one learns that shutdown can happen to any institution and not just to the regulator. We have discussed the subject many times in this blog that no US colleges can take for granted that enough “funding” or “money” will always be available to support their operation. It can go and puff away in seconds without early warning.

Hopefully colleges will take lessons from recent government shutdown. And convince themselves that perhaps the shutdown-day will also happen to colleges who are operating beyond their means i.e., more spending than revenue, over-investment or operating under inefficiency mindset. Our research results show that majority of US colleges are operating in excess of their operating revenue generated from tuition. Please click here (public colleges) and here (non-profit higher learning institutions) to see and analyze total revenue generated from tuition compared to total education and general expenses.

Please write your comments below what do you guys think?