The market is heavily subsidized, to the tune of the annual $120+ billion in Federally guaranteed grants and loans that the DOE boasts of being provided every y

The market is heavily subsidized, to the tune of the annual $120+ billion in Federally guaranteed grants and loans that the DOE boasts of being provided every year in its public letters. The loaning of such large sums to teenagers who don't yet understand basic financial cost/benefit analysis severely distorts the market. When evaluating which university to attend, they are choosing to spend an extra $20k+ a year on the school with more luxurious facilities, better departmental marketing, bigger party environment, or slightly higher brand recognition. It's easy to make that decision when you haven't earned that kind of money yet. High-end schools interpret this as a sign of fair sustainable market valuation, and increase their spending on administrators and facilities even more. Other schools follow, desperate to compete. Sky-high tuitions are the result of decades of compounding inflation by subsidy. https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2019report/fsa-report.pdf https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2019report/fsa-repo...