Category: tuition

The best tuition cap of all?

Hat tip to Steve Fiore, the idea from Robert Samuels is here. Money quote:

Rather than directly paying for public higher-education institutions, state and federal governments have often relied on tax deductions and credits to support individual students. But what this system has achieved is a tremendous subsidy for upper-middle-class and wealthy families, while lower-income students are forced to take out huge loans to pay for their education.

It’ll be interesting to see what the future of public higher ed really looks like. My guess is qualitatively different from what we have today.

The College Tuition Crisis according the Stanley Fish–Not

Here’s the link from today’s NY Times on-line. So what’s my take? Well, for one, I’m very proud to work at a very affordable public university. But I do recognize that in the current economic environment, colleges have to raise tuition (and this is particularly true for public institutions) if they want to continue to deliver a quality product (and avoid, to use Fish’s term, academic malpractice).

But there’s a larger issue–the competitiveness of US institutions of higher education is a key national security asset of this country. We need to recognize that, especially as we go through the process of seriously discussing what government should do.

Berea versus Amherst College: the question of tuition

Read this article by Tamar Lewin in the New York Times about Berea, a college with a billion dollar endowment that doesn’t charge tuition….compared with my Alma Matter, Amherst College.

Money quote:

“You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free,” said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. “We call it the best education money can’t buy.”

Actually, what buys that education is Berea’s $1.1 billion endowment, which puts the college among the nation’s wealthiest. But unlike most well-endowed colleges, Berea has no football team, coed dorms, hot tubs or climbing walls. Instead, it has a no-frills budget, with food from the college farm, handmade furniture from the college crafts workshops, and 10-hour-a-week campus jobs for every student.