Rising Tuition Costs in the US

Written by: Musaab Tareen 

 Rising Tuition Costs in the US

As many high school students begin applying to colleges, one issue on the mind of both students and parents is the price of college tuition. Tuition rates have risen over 175% in the US over the past two decades, and the United States has become the second-highest country in the cost of secondary education among all developed nations. Due to these numbers, and the over 1.6 trillion dollars in student debt owed by the American people, many begin to wonder whether the US government should be doing more to try and control tuition prices and make college more affordable for students. 

US tuition prices have grown at an extremely high rate over the past twenty years. The average yearly tuition for private universities has risen by over 26,000 dollars. For public colleges, it has risen by over 18,000 dollars for out-of-state tuition and over 10,000 dollars for in-state tuition. While these increases may seem astonishing, what is more surprising is that these increases are part of a growing trend seen in the US since the 1980s. During this time period tuition costs on average have risen by around 500%, which is double the amount which inflation has risen over the past 40 years. These rising costs have caused many problems for the United States and look to continue to do so. Rising costs have caused fewer students to choose to attend a university after high school graduation, with the rate of college participation dropping over the past 40 years and total college enrolment numbers dropping since 2010. This means that to more and more people, the opportunity cost of attending college is too high to outweigh any benefits a college education may have down the road. While some may not see this as a problem, as many of those who choose not to attend college go directly to the labor force, with technology evolving at a rapid rate in the US there will be more high qualification jobs available, and fewer people to fill them. The increase in prices has also affected low-income students who have seen their college participation rate stay at a meager 33%, less than half of the national participation rate. This rate has been increasing over the past 40 years, however, at a very slow rate showing little growth and little increase in incentive for low-income students to attend college. 

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-20/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities

   

 https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics

So what are the options that the US government has to try and fix this? One option which was presented by lawmakers in the past was to grant more federal aid to colleges who choose to raise prices only at inflation level or lower. This would provide universities an incentive not to raise their tuition at high levels as they would be able to attract a high demand of students due to low tuition rates, and still recuperate any losses incurred due to not raising tuition higher through federal funding. This is a viable option which the government could take; however, it would only work with public colleges that receive federal funding, and would also cause a need for a tax shift or a shift in funding from other sectors of the government to pay for the extra funding. Another option would be to put a price ceiling on tuition rates based on educational quality. This would still allow high-quality universities to receive higher tuition to pay for their student’s educational experience, however, it would help lower the overall cost of education. This option is viable as well, however could come with unwanted consequences such as a drop in quality of education as well. 

All in all, it is clear that rising tuition costs are a very large issue in the US and something must be done to counter them. While many of the solutions that the US government may have at their disposal do have drawbacks to them, the extent to which tuition costs have become a problem is much higher than any problems the drawbacks from these solutions may incur. Whether it is through price ceilings, or restructuring federal aid, the US government must take a role in trying to lower tuition costs to make post-secondary education affordable for all.

Works Cited

Armstrong, Martin, and Felix Richter. “Infographic: The World's Highest and Lowest Tuition Fees.” Statista Infographics, 17 Sept. 2021, www.statista.com/chart/11058/bachelor-tuition-fees-international-comparison/.

Hanson, Melanie, and Fact Checked. “College Enrollment Statistics [2022]: Total   by Demographic.” Education Data Initiative, 22 Jan. 2022, educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics.

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.

“Home.” Education at a Glance 2021 : OECD Indicators | OECD ILibrary, www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b35a14e5-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/b35a14e5-en.

News, Zenger. “College Tuition Is Rising at Twice the Inflation Rate-While Students Learn At Home.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Dec. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/zengernews/2020/08/31/college-tuition-is-rising-at-twice-the-inflation-rate-while-students-learn-at-home/?sh=73ef60342f98.