The New Republic

One of the main reasons that the cost of tuition increase is that funding from state tax payers is cut.

- kluhman

January 24, 2012 at 10:23pm

kluhman, while that seems to be true for state universities, it's not the whole picture. I recently completed my BA and MA and I can say from experience that almost no student sees the real cost of their education at the point of purchase. According to CNN, "at least 52% of all students at public four-year universities receive scholarships or grants." That percentage rises to 88% at private universities. This easily available aid "brought the net tuition paid by the average student at a typical public university to about $2,500" and at private institutions to an average of $26,700. No matter one attends, the remaining tuition can be covered by a federal loan. Now, I'm certainly not advocating that we eliminate student aid. But let's be honest: the universities have no reason to conserve costs or reduce tuition. They own a market filled with consumers who are almost entirely insulated from the costs of the products they're buying. With that in mind, I think that the President's comments on this in the SOTU was right on target. Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college/college_tuition_cost/index.htm.

- bacchant

January 24, 2012 at 11:07pm

Of course, this can also be easily spun as Obama vows price controls and federal takeover of private sector firms that don't do his bidding. #theresaconservativevictimizationappforthat

- chaitless

January 24, 2012 at 11:10pm

bacchant, it sounds to me like Obama IS talking about state universities. If he could make health care costs drop and energy costs go back down, that would help too.

- JEFF FREY

January 25, 2012 at 12:08am

In my state (TN), there is a direct -- fuzzy, but identifiable -- relationship between the decline in state support for the public university system over the last 10 years and the rise in health care costs for state employees in general.

- ironyroad

January 25, 2012 at 1:37am

Laughable. After schools such as U of Wisconsin Madison, U of Michigan and other state schools have recently considered breaking their state mandate to serve the poor and other all comers inside their respective states, and become private schools, due to almost non-existent and not worth the hassle state aid, who cares about this complaint? These schools feel they can get by with endowments, grants and serving elite students that can afford the tuition. Seriously, after comments like this from the President, and Tim making it a big deal, I don't blame these schools for not wanting to be thrown under the bus anymore. Screw the poor. Have at it bigs.

- jet

January 25, 2012 at 3:39am

Tennessee?? How is it that I thought that you live and teach in southern California, irony?

- liberalref

January 25, 2012 at 11:19am

Libref, that was the case, but a few years ago -- I was in Los Angeles until 2007, when I moved to the Volunteer State.

- ironyroad

January 25, 2012 at 1:45pm