The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much

[Harry]

BOULDER, Colo. ONCE upon a time in America, baby boomers paid for college with the money they made from their summer jobs. Then, over the course of the next few decades, public funding for higher education was slashed. These radical cuts forced universities to raise tuition year after year, which in turn forced the millennial generation to take on crushing educational debt loads, and everyone lived unhappily ever after.

This is the story college administrators like to tell when theyre asked to explain why, over the past 35 years, college tuition at public universities has nearly quadrupled, to $9,139 in 2014 dollars. It is a fairy tale in the worst sense, in that it is not merely false, but rather almost the inverse of the truth.

The conventional wisdom was reflected in a recent National Public Radio series on the cost of college. So its not that colleges are spending more money to educate students, Sandy Baum of the Urban Institute told NPR. Its that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding and thats from tuition and fees from students and families.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/05/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-college-tuition-costs-so-much.html?_r=0

[Cerebus]

When I came to UNT in 1997 the State of Texas covered ~4/5 of the cost of education, today the state covers about 1/5 of the total cost.

Somewhere along the line it became "fiscally responsible" to cut education when it used to be sacrosanct.

[Quoner]

When I came to UNT in 1997 the State of Texas covered ~4/5 of the cost of education, today the state covers about 1/5 of the total cost.

Somewhere along the line it became "fiscally responsible" to cut education when it used to be sacrosanct.

Would be great to invite some government leaders to come speak about the issue. Know of any higher ups we might be able to get to come on campus?

[Mean Green 93-98]

When I came to UNT in 1997 the State of Texas covered ~4/5 of the cost of education, today the state covers about 1/5 of the total cost.

Somewhere along the line it became "fiscally responsible" to cut education when it used to be sacrosanct.

So you disagree with the article?

Tuition at private colleges and universities has also skyrocketed. The factors that caused this obviously affect state schools as well.

[Cerebus]

So you disagree with the article?

Tuition at private colleges and universities has also skyrocketed. The factors that caused this obviously affect state schools as well.

I think the article is being a little disingenuous. Yes, the total dollar amount is much higher than it has been before, but the author also should have seen why this isn't the total story. The article itself says:

While the college-age population has not increased since the tail end of the baby boom, the percentage of the population enrolled in college has risen significantly, especially in the last 20 years. Enrollment in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs has increased by almost 50 percent since 1995.

I do think universities are too admin heavy. However much of that administration is there to gather funding from state, local and federal sources. Or to continue to prove they deserve federal funding in the face of higher and higher regulation.

I do think that a pretty large percentage of the increase in the last 10 years or so has come from the "resort education" mindset that students and parents demand. You don't have a top flight union? No climbing wall? Well then that is going to really hurt applications.

There is a ton of things that have lead to the cost being higher for individuals. As far as I can tell however the biggest one is that the states have decided to no longer under write the cost.