Dear #MillionStudentMarch: Tuition Is Expensive Because of Big Government
16th November 2015
Adjusted for inflation, tuition and fees at public four-year colleges have increased 394 percent since 1976, according to the College Board. Students aren’t necessarily paying the “sticker price” thanks to scholarships, grants, and other financial aid, but net tuition and fees have steadily increased, and even more so if room and board is factored into prices.
Federal and state largess has done little to restrain tuition and fees. While federal and state funding has different goals, public colleges and universities fund a larger percentage of their budgets from government sources (37 percent) than from tuition and fees (21 percent), according to research from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The federal government also funds tuition and fee payments through its student loan program. In fact, by volume, “federal loans grew 376 percent between 1990 and 2013 in real terms, compared with enrollment growth of 60 percent,” and $103 billion in loans were issued in 2013, according to Pew.
The hefty government involvement, rather than helping students, has remained one of the reasons that college costs keep rising. Growing demand for college attendance, and a government willing to lend money to any prospective student, has let universities raise costs without a drop in enrollment as students hold more debt.