How much should college cost?
March 31st, 2008How much should a college education cost in the United States? What are the factors that increase college costs at twice the rate of inflation, and how can those be controlled?
My own education at the University of California cost less than $2000 per year. In today’s dollars, that would translate into a cost of less than $20,000 per year, including room and board. Of course I had a single studio apartment with a view of the Pacific ocean not ten minutes’ walk from the beach.
An urban American college could be run today for about $20,000 per year so long as the school did not offer an intensive science curriculum or a large athletics program. My first college, the University of California at San Diego, offered no electives at all in its opening two years. You took a standard and rigorous curriculum, and if you wanted more, you got permission to take graduate classes.
Economies are still possible, but colleges that wish to offer more education for fewer dollars, while at the same time guaranteeing decent pay for employees, need to think creatively about what can be cut from the current mix of offerings. Later posts will explore what can be done.