College Tuition: Up, Up, and Away

Troubling news today from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education about the rising the cost of college tuition and the increasing percentage of Americans who are unable to afford it:

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to 34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.”

Let’s just hope the rising cost of tuition isn’t caused by spending on items that are, shall we say, non-essential, like this lavish 50 million dollar recreation complex built by my home state’s University of Missouri. Something tells me, however, that lower-class families are being hurt by universities that are trying to compete for the attention of higher-paying customers.