Revisiting the spiraling costs of education

Outside of the financial/political realm, it's clear that one of my favorite topics to discuss here is education (and its ever-increasing costs). I think that our education system is overdue for some fairly major changes, and I'm of course interested to see how they take shape. If you doubt that changes are necessary, I would point you to this article from The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The ranks of the most expensive colleges have grown again: 100 institutions are charging $50,000 or more for tuition, fees, room, and board in 2010-11, according to a Chronicle analysis of data released last week by the College Board. That's well above the 58 universities and colleges that charged that much in 2009-10, and a major jump from the year before, when only five colleges were priced over $50,000.

This year marks a milestone as the first public institution has joined that elite club: the University of California at Berkeley is charging out-of-state residents $50,649 for tuition, fees, room, and board. (The price for in-state residents is only $27,770.)

All of the other 99 colleges charging $50,000 or more are private. They made up 9 percent of the 1,058 private institutions reporting any amount for tuition, fees, room, and board.

From 5 institutions to 100 institutions in just two years, even as the economy has crumbled and the Fed has warned of deflationary pressures. This would be laughable were it not so damning. Here is your dubious Top 25:

In the interest of providing full information, my alma mater of Harvard checks in at 84th on the list (total cost of $50,724, up 4.2% from 2009-10), and the last institution on the list is Loyola U. Maryland (an even $50,000, up 4.6% from 2009-10).

The steady, across the board year-over-year increase is staggering--an average of around a 4% increase, while the rest of our economy has stagnated. Keep in mind that the median per capita income in 2009 was just $26,530, a slight decrease from 2008. Therefore, the cost of going to college increased dramatically last year when compared to the average purchasing power of the American citizen.

With a median income of $26,530, and a rapidly increasing number of schools charging over $50k a year, the math is simply staggering. A positive return on investment is becoming increasingly unlikely, and we are very clearly nearing a tipping point. Somehow, this needs to reverse course.


[The Chronicle of Higher Education]