Colleges are bidding up tuition prices faster than a hedge fund manager at an art auction. Over the past 10 years the cost of private college has jumped more than 60%, nearly three times as much as incomes over the same period, and will now set you back $42,000 a year on average.
Prices at public colleges have shot up even more, nearly doubling to $21,000 for in-state students. Got younger kids? By 2020 you’re looking at a four-year bill that’s likely to top $240,000 for private schools and $155,000 at public universities.
The authors of this article follow up with policy recommendations to control tuition costs including increasing the teaching load on faculty, migrating more classes to the internet, reform of the federal student loan system, and cutting sports spending (which has accelerated at twice the rate of academic spending).
I found all of the recommendations to present various problems, but cutting out of control athletics spending seemed like the most obvious place to start.