Gold-plated education

PAW’s April 6 cover story, “Deficit disorder,” helps in understanding why the University of Texas has just added $500 million in gold to its endowment, bringing its total bullion holdings to $987 million. Sixty-three years ago my Princeton tuition, room, and board cost me the equivalent of 57 ounces of gold per year, an expenditure that would have set me back only 35 ounces of gold in 2010. Clearly, automation and harder-working professors are making education cheaper.

If this trend continues, it will take only about 25 Canadian gold Maple Leaf coins per year to pay for my granddaughter’s (Class of 2020, I hope) education.