College education is becoming more and more unaffordable that it has become one of the major national concerns in America. Thanks to rising tuition fees and increasing student debts. Both policymakers and educators have recognized that if this issues won't be addressed, the future of education is dismal. With the rising tuition fees, a lot of reasons have been brought in the table yet none really stated what causes this increase.
Some of the reasons often given by colleges are additional facilities are being built or more expenses on dorms and other amenities. None of these reasons comes close to the real reason of tuition fee increase because no one dared mention that the cuts to state education funding is the real culprit.
This fact was presented by Doug Webber in his report saying that state funding cuts are indeed the real reason for such increases. He backed his claims with statistics from the Department of Education showing how 75 percent of the tuition fee hike for the past 15 years have been made by these education cuts. On the other hand, only 25 percent makes up for administrative and construction costs as the reason for the increase.
Webber further explained that if states remained consistent in funding higher education, they will be able to improve other programs. However, only Alaska, Wyoming, and North Dakota have kept their finding in line with the inflation.
It is, therefore, not surprising that tuition costs continue to rise instead of falling. In fact, if funding had been consistent, school costs would have been lower since 2000 and schools wouldn't have to hire cheap and non-tenure track faculty causing students to suffer the brunt.
Experts and policymakers agree that in order to stop or reverse the rising tuition fee hikes, the government needs to reinvest in higher education. However, states are either unable or unwilling to reinvest; thus, it falls into the hands of the federal government to take the first step.
