The cost of American higher education is reaching dizzying heights. Average tuition for attending a private, nonprofit four-year college or university in 2013 was $40,917 per year, while a public four-year college cost $18,391 yearly – figures representing a five-year increase of 14 percent and 20 percent, respectively. To pay the fattening bill, students are taking on more loan debt than ever before.
Blame bad public policy for much of this unaffordability. The federal student loan program, which disburses funds to students based on the price of attendance at their chosen college, provides no incentive for the schools to keep costs low – in fact, the incentive runs the other way, giving schools the confidence that they can spend lavishly on new dorms, fancy research labs and phalanxes of administrators, while passing the costs on to students. The program has clearly helped enable tuition to outpace inflation for decades. So far, Congress has done little to initiate reform.
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