So, I am supposed to write a piece on tuition costs for my school newspaper. I know the basics I want to cover, but please share any ideas or good points that you think should be made.
I figure I’ll mainly discuss supply and demand, how prices arise in a market, what function they serve, what information they convey, etc. One of my main points will be that the well intentioned guaranteed loans and various subsidies drive up costs in the long run.
What points should I be sure to hit? Are there any lesser known facts that would be useful?
While this article http://blogs.forbes.com/davidwhelan/2011/04/14/george-washington-university-is-an-odd-location-to-discuss-fiscal-restraint/ may not directly answer your question, it does link to quite a few and hopefully will help you. At the very least it’s interesting.
Good luck.
If you can get ahold of a copy of Vedder’s book Going Broke By Degree: Why College Costs So Much, it would definitely provide you with plenty of data to back up your argument.
This might give you a useful factoid or two as well. The only problem I have with it is the part where they imply it’s the government’s job to “keep tuition prices in check”…
Well, vouchers aside, he’s saying that the subsidization of higher education has created the potential for an unlimited rise in quantity demanded, which causes rising prices.
I thought that “voucher” captures the essence of all these things.
It’s a vicious cycle. After the price rises, the government decrees that education is once again too unobtainable and increases the subsidy, which causes further rise in price. Eventually there will either be price controls or tuition subsidy will be 100% of GDP.
Aside from a very small amount of gifted students that would recieve loans for high end degrees, on a free market banks would not lend out money to college students. Way too risky and much better ways to loan out money. The unbearable rise in prices has been due to government scholarships and government guarantees for payment of student debt (like sallie Mae), as well as steadily rising unnatural demand for college since the U.S priced out its manufacturing jobs since the 70s and jumpstarted it’d way to becoming a high tech service economy. The demand curves for college degrees are constantly shifting out, even moreso now since everyone is going back to school because they can’t find a job.
