On Tuesday I walked up L Street to the Cato Institute for a debate about spiraling tuition and the role of the federal government in higher education. As you might imagine, I was on the “there should be one!” side of the argument whereas Neal McCluskey from Cato took the “everything will be fine if [...]
All Posts Tagged: 'Tuition Increases'
Goldilocks and Pell Grants
It’s hard to make everyone happy on federal financial aid. Postsecondary institutions and state legislators decry the declining value of the Pell Grant over time. They’re right; it does buy less than it used to. But, federal legislators argue the Pell, the primary vehicle for student aid for low-income students, has been regularly increased and [...]
B.U.: Boo Hoo
Sunday’s New York Times had an article about the Boston University admissions and financial aid offices. We learn a lot about how these offices work, and it’s mostly unflattering. See if you can find what I mean in the passage below:
For example, last year, Boston University gave $43 million in institutional aid to incoming freshmen. [...]
Uncomfortable Truths
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has recently launched an initiative to leap toward a tuition model that involves greater degrees of price discrimination. It plans to increase tuition significantly, capitalize on those students who can pay the higher costs, and re-distribute excess money to low-income students. It’s a bad idea for a variety of reasons (read [...]
The Rachel Maddow Show
I’ll be on Rachel Maddow’s Air America radio show today at 1:15 6:00PM, talking about why college keeps getting more expensive. Rest assured, state legislatures will get their share of blame. But I’ll also be pointing the finger at people like SUNY-Buffalo president John Simpson, who apparently sees the current economic crisis as the perfect [...]
EVENT: Computers, Professors, and the Cost of Higher Education
Note: Pushing this back to the top as a reminder to sign up, and also because the magazine article in question is now live to the world, here. Read it! Right now!
It’s commonly believed that higher education suffers from an acute case of “Baumol’s Cost Disease,” an affliction that causes labor-intensive industries to become [...]
A Financial Aid Shake Up
Last Friday, FastWeb, a free, online scholarship search service, released the results of a survey it conducted on student borrowing, showing that half of students applying for private loans, parent PLUS loans, and home equity loans were denied access to funds. If this number is accurate, it means that a large number of students will [...]
Massive Endowments
The annual college endowment report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) was released yesterday. Overall, it was a great year for higher education, with average earnings of 17.2 %. The richest institutions (over $1 billion in assets) did even better, earning 21.3%. One consequence of the growth is that institutions [...]
Ask And You Shall Receive
Last week, I asked whether there were any colleges with unique strategies for controlling tuition and aiding students, but without the help of a gigantic endowment. Lo and behold, Inside HigherEd reports on Blackburn College, a small, private college in Illinois (chances are this school is off the NYT’s radar), that is trying to do [...]
Least Surprising Education Headline of the Year
The Center on American Progress sponsored an event last week focused on college rankings. I was on the panel along with a representative of U.S. News & World Report, and recent late-night comedy star Paul Glastris. During the Q&A, I made a point that I try to make whenever someone gives me a chance, and [...]
The Higher Education Finance Squeeze
The association of State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) has a new report showing how per-student state and local financial support for higher education declined in real dollar terms from $7,121 in 2001 to $5,833 in 2005.
This is an important issue to keep track of. In the realm of public fiscal priorities, higher education is [...]
Lowering Student Loan Default Rates: What One Consortium of Historically Black Institutions Did to Succeed 
College and Career-Ready: Using Outcomes Data to Hold High Schools Accountable for Student Success
03/19/10 | Ben Miller is quoted on college graduation rates and the NCAA Tournament in the Detroit Free Press.
03/19/10 | Linda Perlstein links to Education Sector's "College- and Career-Ready" event.
03/17/10 | Ben Miller's column on graduation rates and NCAA Tournament eligibility is mentioned on The Wall Street Journal's The Daily Fix.
03/17/10 | Kevin Carey's critique of Diane Ravitch's latest book is quoted in Doublethink's Conventional Folly blog.
03/15/10 | Ben Miller pens an op-ed for US News & World Report on using graduation rates to determine NCAA Tournament eligibility.