Mother Jones - In the 2012-13 school year, first-year, on-campus tuition averaged $43,000 at four-year, private schools and $21,700 at in-state public schools.
It wasn't always like this: The cost of undergraduate education is 12 times higher than it was 35 years ago, far outpacing inflation. While the indexed price of college tuition and fees skyrocketed by more than 1,122 percent since 1978, the cost of medical care rose less than 600 percent, and the cost of housing and food went up less than 300.
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One reason is that Pell Grants went to students at every kind of college, including rich ones and crappy ones. It would have been a subsidy to state universities except for the lobbying of the private colleges. Also, the religious colleges wanted students to be subsidized, as they couldn't be.
The quality has not improved. Much is a scam, with student consumers demanding A's because of their investments. The way they get it is through student evaluations, which punish profs who don't shell out the A's, require real work, or report plagiarism. Adjuncts are most fearful of the evaluations, and act rationally in protecting their interests.
What should the curriculum be today? Much is determined by foundations, NGOs, government contracts, and businesses. We need another process.
Joan Roelofs
Professor Emerita of Political Science
Keene State College
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