(from Forbes):
By Chuck DeVore
There’s a growing narrative promoted by some boosters of public universities that a decline in state taxpayer funding explains the rising cost of tuition at four-year institutions across America.
The latest offering along this theme asserts that only no more than a quarter of the increased cost of tuition at public universities can be attributed to “to rising faculty salaries, improved amenities and administrative bloat” while “the decline in state support accounts for about three-quarters of the rising cost of college.”
Interestingly, the author, an assistant professor of economics at Temple University, admits that private universities have also “…seen substantial tuition increases” as have for-profit institutions.
Unfortunately, the author buries his money quote near the end of his piece: “Some institutions may be raising tuition in order to capture as much government-backed money as possible.” Though he appears to ascribe the federal dollar capture incentive only to for-profit colleges.
But economics alone is inadequate to explain rising college tuition. CONTINUE READING HERE