Okay, times are hard. Public universities have been there before, and one of the models that emerged after the 2001-02 recession was “charter colleges,” akin to “charter schools.” The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a state-supported college, became more autonomous, as described in today’s Pope Center article by Charles Cieppo and James Stergios of the Pioneer Institute. In return for greater freedom (including the right to retain all tuition and fees), the school agreed to keep support from the Commonwealth relatively low (about 30 percent) and also to keep a lid on in-state tuition.

The school’s transition has been pretty successful. Mass Art achieved greater enrollment and higher-quality students (as measured by SAT scores and class rank). And revenues initially soared, because out-of-state students were required to pay much more.

But the hoped-for number of students from outside New England wasn’t reached, posing financial problems down the road. The argument is that private competitors such as the Rhode Island School of Design give greater discounts to students through scholarships.

That may well be true. Mass Art officials may not have done their homework when they raised prices. But I suspect that, in addition, the incentives still aren’t quite right. Those new revenues were probably not used as efficiently or as creatively as they should have been to raise quality. But Mass Art officials are still in the learning process. If they keep experimenting, through trial and error they should get prices and quality in the proper relationship.