Why do Colleges Keep Raising Their Prices
Sydney Fohr
We all see the effects of college, it allows us to separate ourselves and move our way into getting our dream job, but there is a side effect that we all know about and fear the most… it’s not the amount of studying, and it’s not the hard classes, it’s the price to be there and the debt that can occur once out of college. An astounding 14% of all Americans are still in student debt, that's about 44 million Americans. So why are colleges so expensive? There are a few reasons such as an increase in demand, lack of state funding, and the need for more workers such as teachers as well as money to pay them.
The demand for a college education has risen dramatically since 1985 and for good reason. With technology getting more and more advanced and an increase in highly educated people is needed, about 35% of jobs require at least a bachelor's degree. College used to be very affordable back in the 1900s and in 1987 according to Business Insider for 4-year tuition it was as low as $3.2k, now in 2018, it has increased to up to $10k or more. It is a very simple explanation, with the more demand for a product in this case college, then the price will need to increase leading to the mass amount of money needed to attend schooling nowadays.
As well as the high demand for a new figure to learn people, there is a reduced amount of funding towards colleges. With less money, the colleges can do fewer things such as investing in people like teachers. To compensate for the loss of money they charge students even more money. According to the CBPP “States cut funding deeply after the recession hit. The average state is spending $1,598, or 18 percent, less per student than before the recession”. In 2018 around 19.6 million college students were meaning that colleges are missing out on millions of dollars and therefore need money in different ways. Making the students themselves pay for this difference is easy because a lot of them need to go to college and don’t have a choice.
To give everyone an equal chance to learn what they need there are a lot of courses in college. There will always be people needed to teach those courses. Surprisingly there is a lot of staff, there is about one member of staff for every 18 students and when you think about that it's quite a lot of staff. With this many people working there is a great amount of money going towards their pay. According to ZipRecruiter the average pay for a college professor is about $54,340 which is a lot of money especially for how many of them there are. Colleges aren't left with many options, if they cut the pay of the teachers a lot would stop working for them so the best option is to keep increasing the price for the students.
The college will only keep getting more and more expensive as time goes on how it is, with more jobs requiring a college degree students will keep coming. With the high demand and high amount of college professors, money is very tight and in high demand. Although colleges want the best for their students they also want to make money and for that to happen they must raise tuition.
Works Cited
AbigailJHess. “US Student Debt Levels Set a New Record in 2018-Here's How Much the Typical Borrower Owes.” CNBC, CNBC, 28 Dec. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/12/27/student-debt-levels-set-a-new-record-in-2018-heres-how-much-the-typical-borrower-owes.html.
“College Professor Annual Salary in Wisconsin ($54,340 Avg: Dec 2020).” ZipRecruiter, www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/College-Professor-Salary--in-Wisconsin.
Hoffower, Hillary. “College Is More Expensive than It's Ever Been, and the 5 Reasons Why Suggest It's Only Going to Get Worse.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 26 June 2019, www.businessinsider.com/why-is-college-so-expensive-2018-4.
“Recovery: Job Growth And Education Requirements Through 2020.” CEW Georgetown, 7 May 2020, cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/recovery-job-growth-and-education-requirements-through-2020/.
I never thought about how the increase in demand from jobs, because of new tech and the need to understand it, would lead to the increase of people needed to go to college. I think that education funding has been way too cut in the past years, which leads to higher college tuition prices. I believe that education is important to all, and that our government should spend way more money on education. Your blog made me think about what high schools could do to teach more about technology so that maybe you do not need to go to college to learn the new tech. Then however, jobs would need to accept that high school diploma as enough.
ReplyDeleteI was always interested in why colleges continued to raise their prices, seeing that many individuals either struggled to or couldn’t pay the price of college, and seeing how many students were still in debt after being on their own for a while. While reading your blog, it enlightened me on why these colleges keep raising their prices. With the increasing amount of students wanting to go to college to get better education and wanting a larger variety of classes there needs to be more professors for these new classes and to teach more of the core classes with the increasing amount of students. It makes sense they don’t want to cut the pay of these teachers so they keep increasing the price of college instead. I enjoyed reading your piece as I always wondered about the increasing cost of colleges but never took the time to explore why it was happening.
ReplyDeleteI thought you brought up a very good point about the ratio of teachers to students. That is something that many smaller or private colleges pride themselves on because it opens the possibility for a greater connection between a professor and their student. Professors are able to work in smaller groups and cater their teaching to the needs of the greater population, by getting to know the students better. Despite this, I don't think that because there is a reason that it is justified. The government should step in and use funding because there is sometimes crippling amounts of debt that ensue after going to college, which no one deserves. It is almost required to be successful, and you have to pay more money in college for more successful jobs, which take longer to get out of debt. It is paradoxical.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that only 14% of people are still in college debt I thought it would be a lot higher especially when the prices keep rising. Do you think that the government should step in and help out more with student tuition? This I think would work as long as theres some agreement where you can’t drop out if you do you have to pay for those semesters and having the people either work once they graduate for x number of years or go for grad school to get their undergraduate degree for free.
ReplyDeleteLike you mentioned before, the modern world is demanding more and more highly educated persons. Professors are more in demand than ever, and also need to be highly educated. In the past, it wasn't looked down upon those who didn't go to college. College was for the elite and wealthy, however in modern days, all jobs benefit from a college degree and the stigma of not going to college is very great. A lot of students in high school are pressured into attending college and many go to college without a major in plan. That's also why the college drop out rate has increased. The price of college is so great because nearly everybody needs or wants to go. There are countless of job benefits of getting a degree, however it isn't necessary to earn a degree for a high-paying job, it just helps.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me as I put on my tin foil hat for a moment, but I have a guess as to the real reason why college is so expensive. It's because the military will pay for your education if you join. The US spends that most money on it's military out of any other country in the world. We put more money into the military that it can handle, so they need some place for that money to go, outside of simply buying newer and shinier weapons. In come raising college prices. The government diverts money away from education and towards the military, raising college prices. This makes it more difficult for many people to go to college, and at least a few of them will decide that the military is a good avenue into getting the education they want. Whether this tactic is good or bad, it's hard to say. And I have to be honest I don't have any actual evidence if this is intentional or not. But it is important to know that for the low price of spending a couple years in the military you can get a free college education.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add on that out of state tuition is even more expensive and instead of the 10k or more for student tuition it is usually above 30k which is absurdly high and will leave almost everyone who attends an out of state college in debt for years. I think that colleges need more state funding to reduce tuition as college is becoming more and more popular for students after high school.
ReplyDeleteColleges are expensive. With the allure to make more money in the future, people are willing to put themselves in debt for a couple decades with the dream of a luxurious and comfortable life in the future. I think the overall cost for a college degree has surpassed the value of a lot of college degrees. Perhaps the market prices college degrees so high because many view them as a need. Private colleges definitely price their colleges accordingly and are highly profitable and expensive as a result.
ReplyDeleteI chose to read this article because I am going to college next year, it has always been a topic of conversation that college is very costly. As stated in the article, the demand for college has gone up since 1985, I would have never thought that because the demand increased that the price would increase as much. When I read that there is one staff member for every 18 students, it ended up making sense because if colleges did not charge as much it would be much harder for colleges to get teachers to teach courses because they would not be paid as well.
ReplyDeleteThis article really shows that the government needs to step in and provide more funding to colleges & education in general. Looking back to last year, where we looked at government spending, I really think that much of the money put into the military could be distributed into education & healthcare. There aren't any threats to our government (at least, not any threats that come from *other* countries), so we should focus on improving quality of life for everyone, and giving more funding so college can be more affordable is one way to do that.
ReplyDeleteSince college is becoming a more universal necessary part of development and adulthood, I believe that the government's role in helping to fund or eliminate some costs of college is essential. I can only see the importance of a college education continuing to rise, and putting students in such extreme debt so early on in life only strangles them from pursuing other goals.
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