[WS:] And do not forget the effect of market competition. The competition for students can be fierce - which forces individual institutions to woo prospective tuition paying clients ..errr students with lavish perks and amenities, like recreational and athletic facilities, newer and bigger buildings, exclusive transportation system (which is often a necessity due to the dearth of public transportation in most localities outside New York, Chicago, DC and Boston) as well as offering various forms of financial assistance (which must be offset by tuition payments either current or deferred.)
I am pretty sure that making education "free" to everyone (i.e. paid for by public funds) wold eliminate much of that competition for paying clients and the "transaction costs" associated with it, thus reducing the overall cost of education independently of other factors (such as bloated administration.)
Wojtek
On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 2:23 AM, <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Alan writes:
>
> "Without suggesting that colleges and universities manage their budgets
> well,
> and knowing full well that Research universities (NSF I and II) have
> foisted
> really problematic construction and other costs - like the perpetual fiscal
> losers that are large research grants and Intellectual Licensing and
> Technology Transfer offices - onto student tuition, it seems to me that
> tuition costs have gone up for three main reasons... 1) rising energy costs
> exacerbated by the fact that so many schools have older and/or really
> really
> poorly built buildings - from dorms to classroom units and beyond, 2)
> rising
> health care costs exacerbated by how stressful university work is and how
> unhealthy Americans are, and 3), for public higher education, round after
> round after round of net and gross budget cuts. (At elite small colleges
> costs explode, additionally, because of the intense competition for
> students
> and all the construction and programs necessary to draw them in.) "
>
> You forgot to mention the obscene growth of administration in size and
> remuneration.
>
> J.
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