Monday, September 25, 2017
Putting Tuition Prices Under the Spotlight for a Class Project
I have been given the opportunity to do a class research project on any topic about college. My project will be about tuition costs and if they really are rising. I will be approaching tuition costs from an economist's point of view, rather than a broke college student, so no bias here. This blog is going to serve the purpose of documenting my research, ideas and progress. As seen in the software and many other communities open source works, so I invite anyone following to comment on any post with their own ideas, as it may shed light on something new I have not seen. Tuition prices have been in the hot seat recently, with many people thinking they are parabolically increasing, showing no signs of stopping anytime soon. I believe this is false, tuition prices, although rising are actually falling in terms of "real" dollars and affordability. I think this is important to look into because some people(a lot) are beginning to opt out of going to college because it is no longer what it used to be. As a younger member of society, I believe it is important for further expansion to ensure all are properly educated and by shining light on this infamous topic, I hope to assure many that college is worth it, in fact, now more than ever.
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There are lots of economic angles to pursue on the topic of higher education, though the price of tuition is definitely the most salient.
ReplyDeleteMost economists agree that college is still very much worth the investment. And those of the Milton Friedman school of thought think students could pay even more -- and that government should not be transferring wealth to the middle class. One issue for less affluent students, however, is that, as the costs go up, college becomes for a much riskier investment because the penalty for failure goes up too, especially because they are at greatest risk of dropping out with college debt (the worst case scenario). It may be that the "shift" of "risk" to students (as Jacob Hacker describes in The Great Risk Shift) is the biggest reason that less affluent students are thinking twice about going to school, and those who do go do not always pursue the most challenging and lucrative majors for fear of not finishing, which makes it harder to pay off their debts.
There are other questions, too, about what is driving the costs of college, and whether the state cuts to schools explains all of the rise in tuition. One argument on the right is that schools are spending too much on facilities, sports teams, and administrators, and that may be a big part of what is driving such rapid tuition increases. But Christopher Newfield points out (in The Great Mistake) that most of this spending is a product of privatization itself, as schools need to invest in their fund raising efforts and to spend more to market themselves to the most affluent and lucrative students, who expect nicer facilities, plenty of student support, and a recognizable sports team that gives their degree national recognition.
On the issue of whether student loans are worth the risks and the costs there is also much debate. A relatively recent book, Game of Loans, suggests that for most students, loans are actually a good investment and not a long-term burden.
Finally, if you are inspired by the debate outlined by Melinda Cooper among the famous economists Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, and Theodore Shultz, you could find many angles to pursue there, getting at the heart of the question of whether privatization is really better than "free college" -- which is rapidly rising on the left, with moves by Mario Cuomo to make state college free for families earning less than $120K and now the NJ democrat candidate Phil Murphy calling for free community college. What would an economist think about the potential benefits to states that guarantee free college? What does the historical evidence and various experiments around the country suggest?
There are lots of potential angles on the tuition issue alone -- including the question of whether we are nearing the bursting of a "tuition bubble" that might trigger economic catastrophe parallel to the housing bubble that led up to the 2007-2008 crisis.
ReplyDeleteSome students who pursued a topic related to the economics of tuition, from various angles (and some with more success than others):
http://collegetuition16.blogspot.com/
http://studentloanbubble1.blogspot.com/
http://kathryn201college.blogspot.com/