Burying the Lede: College Tuition Has Been in a Decade-Long Decline - Commentary

Contributor David Rosowsky writes:

Two articles, one in The Chronicle of Higher Education and the other in Inside Higher Ed, appeared in the same week touting that (once again) college tuition and fees rose, on average, at a slower pace than inflation. They also reported (and showed graphically) that the actual price of tuition at many colleges and universities (adjusted for inflation) has continued a decade-long decline. Such messages, to which those working in higher ed have grown accustomed each year around this time, are completely at odds with the counter-message that seems to have permeated discussions and opinion-forming around the cost and value of US higher education today. That message – that college costs are spinning out of control, an arms race with few checks and balances, and that higher education is increasingly out of reach for a growing percentage of the population – has gained traction in the media, been taken up by politicians, and fueled both the decline in public support for higher education and the growing movement to no longer require a college degree for some jobs. Higher ed as a public good has given way to higher ed as an overpriced, agenda-driven, self-serving, disconnected, out-of-touch, luxury of questionable value. So which is it? They can’t both be right.