At what cost comes a higher-education degree? According to New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow, the cost of college tuition has risen 68 percent.
"In the 'new normal,' retirement and health care costs simultaneously drive up the cost of higher education, and compete with education for limited public resources. The 'new normal' no longer expects to see a recovery of state support for higher education such as occurred repeatedly in the last half of the 20th century. The 'new normal' expects students and their families to continue to make increasingly greater financial sacrifices in order to complete a postsecondary education. The 'new normal' expects schools and colleges to find ways of increasing productivity and absorb ever-larger budget cuts, while increasing degree production without, we hope, compromising quality."
In constant dollars, state and local educational appropriations per full-time student reached their high in 2001, at $8,670. In 2012, those appropriations fell by nearly one third, to just $5,896.
The cost of tuition, on the other hand, has increased dramatically. According to a September report by CNN Money: "Over the past decade, average annual tuition for a year of community college has risen 40 percent to $3,122, according to the College Board, a nonprofit group that runs the SAT exam. At four-year public universities, the cost has risen 68 percent to $7,692 a year."
Read Charles M. Blow's entire article at the New York Times.
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