Saturday, August 14, 2010

Best of the week entry 3

Comes from National Review and addresses the rising cost of tuition: Why Does College Cost So Much? The author Stephen Spruiell addresses a recent study by a couple of college econ professors that makes lots of arguments for the rising cost of tuition, reasons that Stephen Spruiell and I agree are bunk. There is one overriding reason for the cost of tuition:

The authors don’t bother to mention the argument, even for the purpose of dismissing it, that the primary factor driving college-tuition inflation is actually ballooning federal tuition support: Tuition keeps going up because the federal government ensures that students can afford to pay it.

Give the man a cigar! Government intervention makes higher and higher tuition costs "affordable", at least in the sense that you can pay the bill now even if it takes you decades to pay off the loans. This is exactly why a government takeover of health care is invariable going to explode costs. The presence of an entity that can borrow and print money without restriction invariably causes inflationary pressure. In other words, if you think college or health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free!

We are facing a world where the cost of tuition keeps going up and the watering down of the value of a bachelor degree makes college mostly economically unjustifiable.

1 comment:

Debbie said...

Another perspective (that actually supports your point)...

I have a friend whose daughter went to college last year. Her total cost - tuition, room & board, fees, etc. - was $9000. When I compare that to the ~$7300 that the local school district received per pupil and hear constant whining from school districts about not having enough money, it makes my blood boil a little. (not even taking into account that the actual average spending per pupil in my district is around $11,000 when special ed expenses are included)

Seems a bit ridiculous that the public school, which doesn't house or provide all the meals for their students, spends more per student than it costs to go to college.