College Costs Are Rising Faster Than Cost Of Living, Medical Expenses (CHART)

According to a report from the College Board published earlier this week, college costs are increasing so fast that they are now outpacing cost of living inflation by a significant margin.

However, seeing graphically just how much college cost has risen in comparison to the cost of living and even medical expenses is somewhat shocking. Matthew Phillips of Freakonomics just published a disturbing chart contrasting cost of living inflation, medical expenses, and college tuition.

(h/t Ezra Klein)

This chart is especially disturbing considering medical costs routinely rise much higher than inflation.

Comments

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

09:43 PM on 10/30/2011

Please note that tuition has risen in state community colleges as well, but, at least at my college, from just a ridiculously low $26 per credit hour. At the same time, CC administrators have had to lay off or reduce the course loads of adjunct professors like me. The students are hurting financially, no doubt, but so are the adjuncts, who teach at least fifty percent of the courses in some CC departments.

[josaboeesq]

08:52 PM on 10/29/2011

We simply need to pass a law to get these costs down. Harvard should charge only $9,000,00 per year. As everyone knows MIT is not quite as good and should charge only $8,000.00 per year. Yale is down the list and should get $5,000.00 per year. By the time you get to Stanford, it should be $2,000.00 per year and everyone knows that Berkley is free, as it should be.

[sfbbmom]

01:04 PM on 10/29/2011

There is no reasonable explanation for this other than higher and higher administrators salaries. All responsible people should be screaming for reform.

[darkstar58]

04:38 PM on 10/28/2011

While we need to let the MARKET offer student loans, tuition increases over the past 2 decades just like the questionable for profit schools, simply get kids to borrow huge sums and pay them enough to increase salaries and benefits, raising tuition.
I am for free market. The difference here is the government guarantees the student loans and up until the latest legislation paid interest on the loans until 6 months after graduation. Our country should desire its citizens to become better educated but just like the Democratic fiasco of thinking everyone should be a homeowner, the created a system of making too much money available, versus only private lenders. The difference is just this month student debt exceeded credit card debt.

Now, the bozo is claiming he wants lower rates and loans forgiven. Hey, you, that debt forgiveness means the borrower doesn't pay but the taxpayers will because the loans are guaranteed by us. I accept offering lower payments but NOT debt forgiveness.

When will the Democrats learn citizens have to be responsible and accountable. Get the government out of what the market should provide. Tuition would not have risen to this level without the government guaranteed loans being made available. The Ioans to the for profit schools that have preyed on minorities, provide a very substandard education. I've interviewed graduates of a dozen of these colleges, the graduates aren't prepared are taught well. I will not hire them. I hire only from accredited universities.

[Yam716]

03:19 PM on 10/31/2011

Don't worry, college loan debt will never be forgiven, as it would sink our whole economy.

[Mike Newman]

03:43 PM on 10/28/2011

I wonder how much of those costs go towards overpaid administrators and unnecessary construction projects...my guess is most of it.

[7garments]

04:09 PM on 10/28/2011

You are right about excessive building but few realize that, except for a few people at the very top, administrators and professors are largely one and the same. Some professors angle for those posts (which they hold without giving up faculty status) because they get extra compensation and are excused from teaching.

I went back to graduate school a few years ago and saw firsthand the big, swanky homes of quite a few professors. The money is flowing in not just from generous salaries but from textbook deals and outside business ventures.

[lcr999]

09:12 PM on 10/31/2011

Very few professors make any significant amount of money on textbooks.

[Reikoku Jaken]

02:40 PM on 10/28/2011

The effect of student loans which aren't tied to the academic merit.

Its one thing to loan 70,000 dollars to an individual who shows promise and is liable to pay them money back. It is entirely a different matter, however, to loan the money to someone who is an intellectual armpit and wants to attend college for four years of drunken hazes and poorly structured, late papers.

Its inflation people, plain and simple.

[StringHub]

02:26 PM on 10/28/2011

If universities focused on entrepreneurship and economic development they would not only create jobs for their students, they would also create successful entrepreneurs who ultimately give back.

Just check out what MIT is doing and how they report an average of $400 million in donations each year from successful entrepreneurs who they have supported. http://blog.stringhub.com/2011/10/accelerating-university-startups/

If universities create world changing companies that create high paying jobs, then the cost of student education is worth it. If you take on $100,000 in debt and can't find a job, now that is a problem.

[JStading]

02:21 PM on 10/28/2011

This certainly hacks down the "in my day, I washed dishes through college. Kids these days must be lazy" argument that I hear so often.

[7garments]

02:04 PM on 10/28/2011

Part of the problem with the student loan mess is that public funding for education has been cut, which has transferred costs onto the backs of students. However that is not the whole story. The culture of tenure is contributing to escalating costs. Tenured faculty are running the universities without outside checks, and it is all about them. They teach very little, mainly a graduate class or two on some topic of the moment. They only show up at the workplace a few hours a week, and on top of that they enjoy semester or year-long breaks every few years. Poorly paid graduate students and adjuncts do the actual teaching.

I have observed that it doesn't matter whether the tenured faculty are conservative or liberal; they share the same mindset of entitlement. Budget problems are always a problem for someone else - the students and donors who have to pay more and more, the staff who have to work for less. God forbid professors should ever be expected to cut back on their precious research, their conferences abroad, their well catered dinner parties with cronies. God forbid they should actually teach at least 20 hours a week. Professors were not living this high on the hog 40 yrs ago when tuitions were low. If they do not undertake significant reforms voluntarily, the student loan bubble crisis will force the issue.

[lcr999]

09:18 PM on 10/31/2011

Major universities are in the business of research as well as education. And so yes, a signficant portion of professor's time is spent on research and the university gets well paid for that.

Colleges (e.g. non-research liberal arts colleges) are solely in the business of education.

You argument falls apart in the the tuition costs of major private universities and major private colleges are quite comparable. So research or the lack thereof has very little to do with it. And both are basically insolvent except for alumni donations. Most of the buildings on private colleges and universities are paid for by alumni not tuition.

[lexipaine]

02:02 PM on 10/28/2011

Well the sad thing is, not just private schools have hiked up the bill. My question is, why do they get away with such bullcrap?

[servicemasterwv]

01:44 PM on 10/28/2011

just wait till people figure it out that its a waste of money for college since there is no jobs and nothing is being done to bring jobs back see how high unemployment rate is then

[madcityy]

12:51 PM on 10/28/2011

go to local city colleges............

[smittlib77]

03:27 PM on 10/28/2011

not all places offer good programs, or even have what you want to major in.

[geneandeddie59]

11:35 AM on 10/28/2011

Inflation may cure fixed rate student loan problems as it did in the late 70's/early 80's. My student loans were 60% of my starting salary... 4 years later they were only 25% of my salary... all due to inflation adjustments and increased hiring.