Yesterday, the Cato Institute Policy Forum and the Pope Center for Higher Education hosted a luncheon discussion, “Taking Control of Spiraling College Costs,” to look for explanations into why college costs are skyrocketing (conference podcast yet to be archived). One explanation is the “unintended consequences” of federal tuition aid, enabling college officials to engage in profligate and wasteful spending on projects that may not even have the kind of educational value beneficial to, well, students’ education. Student aid enables expenditures. It seems there is never enough money for college presidents, thanks to the constant flow of federal subsidy. It’s time college authorities and the federal government pay attention to this problem.
These readings can offer a springboard for national conversations: Gary Wolfram, “Making College More Expensive: The Unintended Consequences of Federal Tuition Aid” (Policy Analysis, Cato Institute); Robert Martin, Cost Control, College Access, and Competition in Higher Education (Edward Elgar, 2005); and Neal McCluskey, “Unbearable Burden?: Living and Paying Student Loans as a First-Year Teacher” (Policy Analysis, Cato Institute).
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