"For decades, American
politicians have waxed passionate on the need to put college within every
family's reach. ... The College Board, which tracks each type of financial
assistance in a comprehensive annual report, shows total federal aid soaring by
more than $100 billion in the space of a single decade -- from $64 billion in
2000 to $169 billion in 2010. ... And what have we gotten for this vast
investment in college affordability?
“Colleges that are more unaffordable
than ever. Year in, year out, Washington bestows tuition aid on students and
their families. Year in, year out, the cost of tuition surges, galloping well
ahead of inflation. And year in, year out, politicians vie to outdo each other
in promising still more public subsidies that will keep higher education within
reach of all.
“Federal financial aid is a major
source of revenue for colleges and universities, and aid packages are generally
based on the gap between what a family can afford to pay to send a student to a
given college, and the tuition and fees charged by that college.
“That gives schools every incentive
to keep their tuition unaffordable. Why would they reduce their sticker price
to a level more families could afford, when doing so would mean kissing
millions of government dollars goodbye? Directly or indirectly, government
loans and grants have led to massive tuition inflation. ... The more government
has done to make higher education affordable, the more unaffordable it has
become. Doing more of the same won't yield a different outcome."
--columnist Jeff
Jacoby”
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