Higher Education Costs and the Government

Jeff Jacoby writes about Government programs and the rising cost of College Education in Boston.com:

And the result of this energetic government campaign to hold down the cost of a college education? The cost of a college education is skyrocketing -- and has been for years. Tuition and fees were up 10.5 percent at state colleges and universities last year. The year before that, they were up 14 percent. Every year for nearly a quarter-century -- since before most of today's college students were born -- higher education costs have raced ahead of inflation. And far from slowing this runaway train, government aid serves only to stoke the engine. How could it do otherwise? Every dollar that Washington generates in student aid is another dollar that colleges and universities have an incentive to harvest, either by raising their sticker price or reducing the financial aid they offer from their own funds. Higher Education Act funds 'are seen by colleges and universities as money that is there for the taking,' observes Peter Wood, a professor at Boston University. 'Tuition is set high enough to capture those funds and whatever else we think can be extracted from parents. Perhaps there are college administrators who don't see federal student aid in quite this way, but I haven't met them.' In 10 years of attending committee meetings on the university's annual tuition adjustment, says Wood, 'the only real question was, 'How much can we get away with?' '

I want to ensure that every kid who wants to can go to college. I also want to ensure that colleges are adaptive to the needs of their students and provide a great education. Governement programs may aid the former (although since they raise their costs at least as fast as the Government gives new funds that is unproven) but I think that it greatly hurts the latter. The simple fact is that students will be a lot more critical of a college education that they pay for than one that is 'given' to them. I expect that their is not an easy solution to this problem, but I am pretty sure that simply spending more money won't solve it.