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The federal government doesn't generally pay for education. That's state and local dollars, mostly. The states do pay for education, but during and after the

The federal government doesn't generally pay for education. That's state and local dollars, mostly. The states do pay for education, but during and after the 08 recession (and generally during the 70s-90s too), they have cut funding for higher ed, to put more into k-12 and tax cuts: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-m... Cuts in state support are balanced by tuition increases; expenses on a per-student basis are not up anywhere near what tuition has increased by.

forrestthewoods 4y ago
The 538 article is six years old, it’d be interesting to see an update. It does call out the decreased funding isn’t why private colleges have also grown in cost.
- secabeen 4y ago
  Agreed. I would like to see an update. The private colleges have increased their tuition on an inflation adjusted level at a pretty linear rate (See Figure CP-3 on #1). It's the public Four Year institutions that made the big increases, both correlated with the 01-03 recession, and the 08-09 recession. Since 2014, nameplate public institution tuition has been largely flat (same figure). Additionally, net tuition at 4-year publics actually paid by students has been almost flat or down over the last 15 years (see Figure CP-9 in #10), with net tuition plus room/board up slightly, due to increases in rent not fully controlled by colleges (same figure). The same applies at private non-profits, flat to negative net tuition, and a moderate increase in tuition+room/board (Figure CP-10 in #1). The answer is very clear. When states cut funding per FTE student, tuition rises to compensate. When state funding is flat or slightly up, tuition stays level (Figure CP-11A in #1). All citations from #1, the best data source I know of for college tuition pricing data: https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2021.pdf https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-college-p... If you want to look at it on the expenditures side, which should balance with revenue for non-profits, that data is here, and also shows moderate increases in spending: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_334.10.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_334.10.a...

forrestthewoods 4y ago

The 538 article is six years old, it’d be interesting to see an update. It does call out the decreased funding isn’t why private colleges have also grown in cost.

secabeen 4y ago
Agreed. I would like to see an update. The private colleges have increased their tuition on an inflation adjusted level at a pretty linear rate (See Figure CP-3 on #1). It's the public Four Year institutions that made the big increases, both correlated with the 01-03 recession, and the 08-09 recession. Since 2014, nameplate public institution tuition has been largely flat (same figure). Additionally, net tuition at 4-year publics actually paid by students has been almost flat or down over the last 15 years (see Figure CP-9 in #10), with net tuition plus room/board up slightly, due to increases in rent not fully controlled by colleges (same figure). The same applies at private non-profits, flat to negative net tuition, and a moderate increase in tuition+room/board (Figure CP-10 in #1). The answer is very clear. When states cut funding per FTE student, tuition rises to compensate. When state funding is flat or slightly up, tuition stays level (Figure CP-11A in #1). All citations from #1, the best data source I know of for college tuition pricing data: https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2021.pdf https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-college-p... If you want to look at it on the expenditures side, which should balance with revenue for non-profits, that data is here, and also shows moderate increases in spending: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_334.10.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d20/tables/dt20_334.10.a...