Rising Cost Of Tuition............

[Tbar]

I watched a news story this afternoon about the Million Student March with kids protesting Student Loan Debt and calling for free tuition.


I do not condone/support "free tuition" or "forgiving student loan debt" but I am seriously scratching my head as to why tuition has skyrocketed in the last two decades. Some of the institutions are Extremely Wealthy and their balance sheets are getting bigger and bigger.


Look at this 2012 article on the 10 wealthiest universities. The University of Texas is the wealthiest public institution in the United States and the third wealthiest world wide.


Why do they keep raising tuition??? I am only questioning public universities supported by tax dollars.....not private schools.


The 10 Richest Colleges in America

As tuition costs continue to mount at universities across the nation, some colleges are sitting on mountains of cash.

And while some of that cash goes to regular campus operations or scholarships for students with financial need, many schools don’t really use it at all, investing the money to fund big future projects. And sometimes, when the economy tanks, the money simply gets lost in the market.

Private schools rely on alumni and corporate sponsors to raise funds for the school’s endowment fund, and while some endowments are quite restricted (as in they can only be spent after a certain amount of time, or can only be invested so as to use the profits), many leading universities have taken criticism for collecting the money and sitting on it while raising costs for students.

The most recent comprehensive endowment study from the National Association of College and University Business Owners, which evaluated the 2011 endowment funds for 839 institutions in the U.S., found 75 with more than $1 billion in the bank.

3rd-Richest: University of Texas

2011 endowment funds: $17,148,649,000
Change from previous year: 22%
Students, Fall 2011: 51,112 for the main Austin campus
Undergraduate tuition: $9,816 for residents, $32,594 for non-residents, covering tuition only for the 2011-2012 school year

The University of Texas system, with an endowment of more than $17 billion, is the richest public university in the U.S., and the third richest overall. That’s important, as the school says it only receives 20% of its budget from the state, and that support has dropped steadily since 2009, leading to student walkouts to protest the budget cuts.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-10...QDBHNlYwNzcg--

[Buckshot-73]

You should hear some of the people calling Dave Ramsey about student loans... Anywhere from 10k up to 250k,, all wanting to know how to get rid of it.

It is unreal...

[jerp]

They keep raising tuition "because they can". They raise prices until they find the level where they can no longer stay at max enrollment because it is too expensive, and they are not there yet. They will charge whatever the market will bear. IMO this has been largely driven by too-easy-to-get govt backed student loans that keeps pumping $$ into the system. A ton of that money will never be paid back so we will all be on the hook - the piper will be paid.

[duckmanep]

It is sickening how many students who already get free college, and an extra $1,000 cash in their pocket from a Pell grant, still take out $15k / yr student loans.

[Bowhuntin_Toona]

I have two daughters in college right now. One is going to a private art college, the other is going to the local community college.

The private art college costs $440 a credit hour, while the community college is $55 a credit hour.

The oldest gets a $16,000 scholarship each year and still has a balance of over $25,000 per year. The youngest will graduate for less than what the oldest gets in one year of scholarship. I'm gonna be broke until after I die.....

[sailor]

Why?
Bloated budgets

[TejasNW]

Govt guaranteed loans.

It creates a system of Welfare for schools and banks (no risks loans and an ever expanding demand.) Schools spend more money per student on facilities than they did the year before to capture as many of those 'free dollars' as they can. Banks will make no risk guaranteed loans all day if they can.

It begins a cycle where everyone is sold "You HAVE to have a degree or you'll never find a job." Rinse and repeat for 40 years and here we are.

[klepdo]

Same reason cars and trucks cost so much. If the banks will finance anyone and any amount they will charge it.

[bm22]

One reason I noticed is all the extra crap you have to pay for. If you look at the breakdown of tuition you would disgusted in how much you spend for writing centers, math tutors, career placement and other garbage. What if I just want to go to school. Imo that's where a lot of the money has gone.

[texansfan]

Look at this 2012 article on the 10 wealthiest universities. The University of Texas is the wealthiest institution in the United States and the third wealthiest world wide.

That's not right
I know harvard and yale used to have like 30-40 Billion in endowments
check here: http://www.usnews.com/education/best...est-endowments

I was going to say maybe UT had the most in savings out of public schools but then
This list says TAMU has more savings than UT


But yeah, tuition is rising so fast because professors want to get paid more than $40k a year to teach
they want more like $140k to $240k for all those years of hard work they put into their education/training

[Tbar]

That's not right
I know harvard and yale used to have like 30-40 Billion in endowments
check here: http://www.usnews.com/education/best...est-endowments

This list says TAMU has more savings than UT


But yeah, tuition is rising so fast because professors want to get paid more than $40k a year to teach
they want more like $140k to $240k for all those years of hard work they put into their education/training

In 2012 UT was the wealthiest "public" institution. I corrected that. I'm sure these numbers have increased substantially in the last few years.

My point is if they spun off just 1% of that $17+ billion and spread it over the 40,000 students they could rebate all students $4-5k.

Why are the public institutions sitting on this money??? UT gets tens of millions of dollars every year just on their oil and gas royalties. Why isn't more of this money being used to hold down tuition increases???

[topduarte]

One reason I noticed is all the extra crap you have to pay for. If you look at the breakdown of tuition you would disgusted in how much you spend for writing centers, math tutors, career placement and other garbage. What if I just want to go to school. Imo that's where a lot of the money has gone.

Very true. Almost half of my sons tuition and fees this past fall were fees, etc.

I paid back in 1987 $600 for 16 hours and tuition and fees at UT Austin.

And that was at $16 a semester hour and I took 16 hours which is $256. The rest was lab fees, etc.

Now tuition are over $150 a semester hour plus outrageous fees which will almost double an kids in state tuition.

It is ridiculous.

[Shane]

Academia is run almost exclusively by liberals who have no clue how to manage anything effectively. Government-guaranteed easy money student loans and government grants for research (lots of which is stupid, but the government is paying big money for it anyway), tenure (can't fire a wacko professor who has tenure), lots of people running schools who have never been in the real world ever but have spent their entire lives in school and working for schools, kids and parents who never compare the long-term financial benefits associated with a college degree with the actual cost of a degree ($100K debt for an elementary ed degree, etc)......... There are LOTS of reasons that the cost of higher education is out of control.

It all boils down to academia being run by liberals who expect to be paid highly without any accountability and funded by the government, leaving other people holding the bag for the bill.

[Playa]

They keep raising tuition "because they can". They raise prices until they find the level where they can no longer stay at max enrollment because it is too expensive, and they are not there yet. They will charge whatever the market will bear. IMO this has been largely driven by too-easy-to-get govt backed student loans that keeps pumping $$ into the system. A ton of that money will never be paid back so we will all be on the hook - the piper will be paid.

I have a longer response but I'm on my phone so I'll expand later.

But as long as the loan amount will continue to match the inflated costs, the cost will continue to rise.

We are fast approaching a day where a college degree will no longer be worth it because the long term cost & debt service will surpass the potential earnings increase

[speck1]

Academia is run almost exclusively by liberals who have no clue how to manage anything effectively. Government-guaranteed easy money student loans and government grants for research (lots of which is stupid, but the government is paying big money for it anyway), tenure (can't fire a wacko professor who has tenure), lots of people running schools who have never been in the real world ever but have spent their entire lives in school and working for schools, kids and parents who never compare the long-term financial benefits associated with a college degree with the actual cost of a degree ($100K debt for an elementary ed degree, etc)......... There are LOTS of reasons that the cost of higher education is out of control.

It all boils down to academia being run by liberals who expect to be paid highly without any accountability and funded by the government, leaving other people holding the bag for the bill.

This is spot on!