Yesterday The Daily posted an article about the rising cost of a college education. The numbers are startling. The class of 2034 faces a college bill for a top college of $422,320 in today’s dollars.
The article reports:
The Daily analyzed historical, inflation-adjusted price data from the College Board to see what a bachelor’s degree might cost the class of 2034 in 2011 dollars. The result: Total tuition and fees would top $232,000 for an average-priced four-year private college and nearly $81,000 at an average-priced public university — up 111 percent and 167 percent, respectively, from the average class of 2012 tuition.
Room and board brings the average price of a four-year college education up to a projected $288,000 in 2011 dollars for four years beginning in 2030 at an average private school and $123,000 at an average public school. The class of 2012 paid about $149,195 for a private school and $64,591 at a public university, according to College Board data.
The solution to this problem is NOT government regulation or intervention. This is a case where the free market will actually correct itself (if allowed to). The government has intervened with financial aid programs and loan programs that have allowed tuition and costs to be raised, but as the Occupy Wall Street people complained, it has also caused many students to graduate from college with crippling debt. The free market correction, if it is allowed to occur, will be fewer students going to the more expensive colleges and those colleges being forced to cut their budgets and their tuition. Unfortunately, the student loan and grant programs, as much as they allowed lower-income students to attend college (a good thing), also resulted in inflated tuition costs. It’s time to let the free market bring balance back to the cost of a college education.