AUTISTIC NUMBER CRUNCHING? A recent Matthew Denhart post from the Center for College Affordability and Productivity compares Illinois favorably with Michigan.

Take for example two Big Ten schools, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois. Beyond sharing an athletic conference, these two universities share many other similarities. The states themselves are similar in population, economic characteristics and location. Both institutions are the premier public university in their respective state. Statistical categories show even more similarities. Both have enrollments around the 40,000 mark and graduation rates above 80 percent. Each grants similar numbers of Doctor’s, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees each year. Both universities are continually found among the top of national college rankings such as the US News and World Report. It seems that these two Big Ten schools are nearly identical except in one important regard: spending.

Michigan far out-paces every other Big Ten school (Northwestern has been excluded from this study) in instructional spending with $14,759 per student in 2003. In contrast, Illinois allotted $6,419—less than half that of Michigan. Michigan outspends Illinois in academic support and student services by around $500 per FTE in each category. While this disparity is less, the spending for institutional support also shows tremendous disparity. Michigan spends $2,427 compared to Illinois’s $608. As expected, the sum totals for spending per FTE in these four categories between Michigan and Illinois is immense. Michigan ranks as the highest spender in the Big Ten with $22,296, and Illinois the lowest with $11,037.

The numbers are meaningless. (But I've come to expect that from this so-called Center.) Are we looking at total spending by the universities? What allocations of common and joint costs are the universities making? Is the University of Michigan spending more because the Michigan legislature is appropriating less?

But beyond that, do some legwork. Inspect the Chicago Fed's charts of gross state product by industry. Compare and contrast the magnitudes and evolution of the various sectors. Then inspect the charts of employment by sector. Same assignment. Read the state profiles. Here's one observer's take on Illinois.

The state and local government in Illinois need to deal with the fundamentals of maintaining infrastructure and education in a stable tax and regulatory environment. Business will have to do the rest.

Perhaps legislators starving the University of Illinois and the other state-tolerated universities while denying them the freedom to raise tuitions and tighten standards is not good for the long-term health of the state or the regional economy.