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Education – Spending More For Less


College is way overpriced

With the economy being tight like gnat booty, people are doing everything they can to save a few bucks, or squeeze more out of less. But in the corrupt field of education we’re seeing the exact opposite trend – people are paying more money for less education.

In a recent study by the Delta Project on Postsecondary Education Costs, Productivity and Accountability it turns out colleges are spending less money educating students, in order to pocket more for themselves. To do that, they’re pushing off more of the costs onto students themselves.

Based on data that the institutions of higher learning are providing to the federal government, they are spending less on students, and more on administrative costs (ie. paying themselves). The small number of elite research universities that educate just over 5% of college students spend the most per students, whereas the fountain of wisdom that we call our community colleges, which consist of 1/3 of all college students spend the least (and declining).

2006 is the most recent available data, and it shows that students at public colleges and research universities paid about half the cost of their education (which is loosely defined as the cost of instruction, student services as well as a portion of spending on operations, support and maintenance. That amount has increased roughly 10 percentage points since 2002. Community college students covered about 30 percent of their education, which increased from 24 percent in the previous four years.

The study also shows that spending per student at public institutions declined three years in a row, from 2002 through 2005, even while tuition costs for students increased.

To put all of this in perspective, if tuition was only increased to match the amount of actual spending on students, here is what we would have seen:

  • Public Research Universities would have increased 2.5% (they actually jacked up tuition by 29.8%)
  • Private Colleges would have increased 1.9% (they actual raised tuition by 12.5%)
  • Community Colleges would have actually declined by 2.1% (they raped students with a 29% increase)

So when we advocate that education isn’t worth what it used to be, understand that the numbers back us up. As students struggle to find a good school, schools are doing their best to take advantage of ignorant students.

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