College-cost quandary

With the price of higher education soaring, one congressman has

a controversial plan to steady costs. Rep. Howard McKeon

(R–Calif.), who heads a House subcommittee on

higher-education policy, recently introduced a bill that would cap

tuition increases at twice the rate of consumer inflation.

Any tuition increases over that rate would require an

explanation to the U.S. Department of Education and a written plan

on how the offending institution would keep future tuition

increases down. Institutions that violated the cap would be

penalized, and their eligibility for federal student financial aid

would be jeopardized.

McKeon is brave to try to find a solution to the skyrocketing

cost of higher education. Tuitions have risen 75 percent in the

last decade – up to an average $18,273 a year for private

institutions and $4,081 a year for public institutions. And that

doesn’t include a panoply of other charges on one’s

college bill. So an increasing number of students have to hold

full-time jobs during college or graduate with oppressive debt.

But Congressman McKeon is wrong to apply a fiscal straitjacket

without taking a more comprehensive look at higher education.

At public institutions, rising tuitions stem largely from

state-budget shortfalls, resulting from recession-reduced tax

revenue and, in some states, shortsighted tax cuts. At private

institutions, rising costs reflect students’ willingness to

pay for top-notch facilities and professors, and such investment,

supported by private demand, generally benefits society.

Surely, most institutions could find more cost-effective methods

if they were pressed to do so. But if tuition caps are imposed on

them, they will probably jettison less popular, though not less

worthy, programs, and reduce investment in long-term projects. Our

colleges and universities are the envy of the world because of

their extraordinary facilities and minds: Mandatory caps could

strike at the institutions’ ability to maintain such

excellence.

While public institutions are still relatively affordable for

middle-class Americans, too many private institutions are not. For

years, governments have dealt with this situation through a robust

financial-aid program. Students (or, usually, their parents) who

could afford the rising tuitions paid them, and in the process

helped finance improvements in higher education. Students who

couldn’t pay received financial aid from the federal and

state governments and the private sector.

A way to make college more affordable is simply to provide more

government support for students at both public and private

institutions. Education is one of the most worthwhile investments

that governments can make, in terms of the future strength of the

economy and of society in general. But at the same time, colleges

and universities must be encouraged to be more efficient. One of C.

Northcote Parkinson’s laws, “Expenditure rises to meet

income,’’ is all too apparent in America’s

colleges.

In any event, an affordable and prestigious network of public

and private colleges and universities, which we all want, simply

cannot be accomplished without significant government support.

Providence Journal

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