A Fortune in Tuition

Tuition fees at the typical American state university rose “only” 9 percent this year, USA Today tells us, down from 14 percent last year. For every single year for over 20 years, average tuition hikes have exceeded the inflation rate. When I entered Northwestern University in the late 1950s, it took a median-income family less than two months’ income to pay the annual tuition; today it takes over six months’ income to pay it, at a typical selective private school.

Why is tuition soaring? According to conventional campus wisdom, it’s because of declining external funding: lagging state subsidies to public universities, inadequate contributions and investment income at private ones. Schools also sometimes argue that higher tuition is funding qualitative improvements.

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Richard Vedder

Richard Vedder is a professor emeritus at Ohio University and a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity.

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Tuition fees at the typical American state university rose “only” 9 percent this year, USA Today tells us, down from 14 percent last year. For every single year for over 20 years, average tuition hikes have exceeded the inflation rate. When I entered Northwestern University in the late 1950s, it took a median-income family less than two months’ income to pay the annual tuition; today it takes over six months’ income to pay it, at a typical selective private school.

Why is tuition soaring? According to conventional campus wisdom, it’s because of declining external funding: lagging state subsidies to public universities, inadequate contributions and investment income at private ones. Schools also sometimes argue that higher tuition is funding qualitative improvements.