College affordability

Richard Vedder and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity have a new short report on the cost of college and state spending on higher education.

Among the issues raised:

• "Each on dollar of added state appropirations per student leads to only 30 cents in lower tuition per student at state universities."
• "40% of those who enter college do not graduate in a timely manner."
• "We found no statisically reliable correlation between state spending on universities and the proportion of the population with a bachelor's degree"
• Higher productivity of college graduates may have little to do with things "taught" in college.

In other words, state spending on higher education is unproductive. Among Vedder's recommendations are to end institutional support, and instead offer financial aid to low income students.

For another read on this topic, check out this Wall Street Journal article on "Why Harvard costs so much".