The Higher Education Quiz

Every now and again my wife tells me I say the words "I wonder" too much. I hear things, read things or see things about topical items and I think about them afterwards. One of the things I have thought about, and wondered about for years is why the cost of higher education is so out of control. When I say out of control, I mean that the yearly increases in higher education is much higher than the cost of living increases we all experience.

What really got me thinking this time was an article I recently read which stated that due to the recessed economy, many private colleges are holding down their tuition increases to somewhere between 4 and 5 percent. Wow - what a savings! However, the cost of living increase is projected to be nowhere near that amount. So the question I ask this year is the same I ask every year - what are the cost drivers? It seems that I have to ask this question because the "lap dog" media we have never asks this question - they just blame certain groups for not giving more tax dollars to support education "for the children".

With the CPI (which includes lots of items) averaging slightly less than 2.8% during the decade of the 2000 - 2007, it is hard to fathom why higher education goes up so steeply every year. We all know the reported cost drivers for why health care goes up faster than everything else, but education?

My solution to how to fix this problem is not to play the game the way it is presented. In other words, if private colleges cannot control their costs, avoid them like the plague. Use the state university system instead. If their increases are unsustainable, use the community college system. If those too are out of control, find some online, easily transferable classes to take. It is all about supply and demand. If we tell our higher education institutions that we are not going to support them anymore until they get their costs under control, one of two things will happen. They will cease to exist or they will be better stewards of the money that we (privately) or we (publicly) send them. This is a quiz they must be able to pass.