Somehow Paul Campos–fresh from his latest smear piece on Michael Simkovic–got an opinion piece in The New York Times reporting his latest discovery:  namely, that state spending on higher education has increased, not declined over the last several decades.  How did he arrive at this contrarian conclusion?  By looking at absolute dollars spent on education and largely ignoring or downplaying the increase in the number of students during this time.  (And nothing, as usual, about Baumol's disease, which is crucial to any serious understanding of higher education costs.)  We already knew Campos was not exactly an intellectual giant, but this latest muddle disappointed even my low expectations.  For more detailed discussion, see IHE and Slate.  And for some actual data on the growth in student population, try this, and on the decline in state spending, this.

(Thanks to Michael Simkovic for suggesting the title.)

UPDATE:  CHE collects more responses to this idiocy.

ANOTHER:  Still more on this fiasco, which will hopefully mean we won't have to hear from this ignoramus in a major forum again.