I recently received an invitation from the California Faculty Association to interview for their endorsement.

Now, let’s be real. I am a libertarian running for Governor. The chances of a public sector union endorsing me are effectively zero. We disagree on the nature of taxation, the role of unions, and the fundamental structure of the state.

But in my response to them, I pointed out something that I think most Californians (whether you are a student, a parent, or a professor) instinctively know is true:

The system is suffocating under its own weight.

We are living through a paradox in American higher education. Students are paying more than ever before, taking on debt that cripples their economic future. Yet, the people actually doing the work, our lecturers, our researchers, and our staff in the libraries, are often fighting for cost-of-living adjustments.

If the customer is paying more, and the worker is getting paid the same, where is the money going?

It is going to the "Administrator’s Tax."

The Rise of the Deanlings

In the last few decades, the ratio of students to faculty has remained relatively stable. But the ratio of administrators to students has exploded.

We have built a massive, non-teaching middle management layer in our university systems. We have Vice Chancellors of Strategic Initiatives, Deans of Student Experience, Associate Provosts of Synergy, and armies of compliance officers.

These roles do not teach a single class. They do not grade a single paper. They do not conduct research.

Instead, they justify their salaries by creating work for everyone else. They invent new mandates that require new forms, which require new committees, which require new meetings. They turn the university from a center of learning into a center of compliance.

This is not a "funding" issue in the way the traditional Left frames it. You could double the state budget for the CSU system tomorrow, and I guarantee you tuition wouldn't drop a dime. The bureaucracy would simply expand to absorb the surplus. It is a creature designed to consume resources, not distribute them.

The Cost of Compliance

This bloat does two things, both of them destructive.

First, it drives up the cost of access. Every six-figure salary for an administrator who doesn't teach is paid for by the student (through tuition) or the taxpayer. When we talk about "student debt relief," we are usually talking about subsidizing this administrative layer. We are asking plumbers and electricians to pay off loans that were used to fund the salary of a Deputy Assistant Dean of Campus Life.

Second, it destroys academic freedom. When you have more managers than workers, the managers need to find things to manage. They encroach on the classroom. They enforce ideological mandates. They prioritize "risk management" over intellectual exploration. They treat students like liabilities to be managed instead of minds to be cultivated.

A Return to Basics

I am currently a student. Next fall, I will transfer to a UC to study Cognitive Science. I am the customer of this system.

I don't want a shiny wellness center with a lazy river. I don't want a "Student Success Coordinator" to send me automated emails. I don't want to pay for a bureaucracy that exists to perpetuate itself.

I want a library. I want a laboratory. I want a professor who is paid enough to focus on their research and their teaching without worrying about rent.

We need to treat the university budget like a household budget. If we are spending money on things that do not directly contribute to education or research, we stop spending it.

The unions blame the lack of state funding. The state blames the lack of tuition revenue. They are both ignoring the elephant in the room.

We don't need more money. We need fewer deans.