The Real Reason College Tuition Cost So Much By Paul F. Campos

Today college tuition prices are rising. Paying for college can often be a stressful responsibility. A college education is very important for many students, but when stressing on how to pay for college gets in the way, it becomes more of a burden. Kim Clark effectively states the rising prices of college tuition in her article, “The Surprising Causes of Those College Tuition Hikes.” Clark states that the cost of attending a public university, even after subtracting out aid and inflation, rose more than fifteen percent in the last

The increasing cost of higher education in the United States has been a continuing topic for debate in recent decades. American society emphasizes the importance of education after high school, yet the cost of higher education and advanced degrees continually rises at a greater rate than inflation in the 1970’s. According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, cost factors prevent 48% of college-qualified high school graduates from pursuing further education (McKeon, 2004, p. 45). The current system requires the majority of students to accumulate extensive debt with the expectation that they gain rewarding post-graduate employment to repay their loans.

“College Prices Soar Again!” “Budget Cuts Cause Even Higher Tuition!” “Higher Education Now Even Less Affordable” These are all statements that have been seen all over the media: newspapers, magazines, television, and radio. (3 SV: SV) Rising college tuition in America has been a problem for years. Many students drop out after a single year due to the pricey costs of tuition. The rapid rise can be attributed to many aspects of the economy, not just a single source. There have also been some propositions of how costs could be lowered, but these have yet to be seen. The United States has gone into a tuition crisis.

In the article “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs so Much,” author Paul F. Campos makes a deliberative argument that the cost of higher education is not caused by public funding being cut. Campos uses invention, arrangement, and style techniques in order to structure his argument and persuade his audience. His argument also contributes to the general debate in the cost of education because it is in conversation with other texts and researchers. Campos’ argument effectively contributes to the debate on the cost of higher education because he uses invention techniques, anecdotes, and counterarguments in order to prove that a lack of public funding has not caused the dramatic increase in tuition costs.

The first part of this paper is going to be talking about how college is so over priced and why it shouldn’t be so expensive. By colleges making the price of their tuition so high it is making it so that less kids are able to go to college, which makes it so that when kids come out of high school they are working at low end jobs and are having trouble making enough money to support themselves. In 1930 “tuition was fairly low, and students could attend wharton Business school for $250”(best online colleges). This relates back to the thesis about how less kids are going to college because of how much money it. back in 1930 almost 70% of kids went to college. In 2013 only about 50% of high school grads are going to college. And for the 50% of kids who are going to college, most of them are coming out with huge amounts of debt that is taking them year to pay off.

As a recent analysis, America’s colleges and universities are quietly shifting the burden of their big tuition increases onto low-income students, while many higher-income families are seeing their college costs rise more slowly, or even fall” (Eskow). Though education is the basic human right, most of the people in the U.S. are not being able to gain it as because of its rising cost. Since the 1970s, tuition and fees at public institutions have increased by more than 350 percent, while pay for working- and middle-class households has stagnated. As a result, the cost of a public-college education now accounts for almost 15 percent of the average family's annual income; 40 years ago it was about 4 percent (Kenneth W. Warren and Samir Sonti). The tuition and fees are increasing in such a way that the young Americans aren’t as educated as the young citizens of many other developed countries. The U.S. ranks 14th in the world in the percentage of 25-34 year-olds with higher education (42%).” When all adults of working age are considered, the US is still one of the highest-educated countries in the world. But when this age group is considered, we are falling behind (Richard Eskow). That’s the personal loss for the young people of the U.S. Education is not a privilege of the rich and well-to-do; it is the inalienable right of every people. It is a powerful tool by which people can lift

A major problem for today’s high school graduates is the rising price in college education. Attending college can add up really fast; it can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars per year (Barkan 1). No wonder, in Steven Barkan’s book of social problems, issues and problems in higher education take up a full chapter. In this chapter, Barkan states that only 44% of all students who attend a four-year institution is lucky enough to have annual tuitions and fees amount to less than $9,000 per year. The aggravating question is, “why does college cost so much?” Not only is tuition part of the cost of college but also fees housing and meals, books, school supplies, and accessories (“What’s the Price Tag” 1). All tuition covers is the money for academic instruction. Fees are charges for specific services such as, internet access, and then the cost of books and school supplies add up. Additionally, one is not paying just for textbooks but also

College tuition is an expensive entity to pay for and not many people have the luxury of having college being completely paid for, however, so many people that have previous experience like teachers, counselors, and parents, want students to pursue this expensive entity so their future is brighter. Why is being a college student becoming a luxury that fewer people can afford and attend to? Factors like the actual cost for college tuition, costs for higher education, the working class and their difficulties of paying for other things in addition to tuition, proposals from our government, and tuition remission, is when we begin to see how big of a problem tuition costs actually are. School is an important opportunity that I have taken like many of my teachers, parents, and government have told me to take, but I still struggle paying for it; if school is a value that people should be taking advantage of, tuition needs to be more affordable in order to do so.

Someone who went to college might say that it was their best years of their life, and others might say that they dreaded the fact of college. College is in fact very expensive. Many people who don’t go to college usually don’t have the money to go and at the same time, don’t earn the education they need. According to the article, “why is college so expensive” it states, “ As the government’s budget changed, so did the University’s funding.” This shows why college is majorly expensive because as the budget of the government changes, the cost of college

One of the culprits hindering higher education for Americans is the tuition rates. A report by the Delta Cost Project indicates that if tuition had grown in pace with inflation, the average tuition at in-state public colleges would only have been $2,052 in 2010. The actual price of tuition was around $7,500, and it is increasing at around 5% per year, about twice as fast as the rate of inflation. Whereas everything else in the economy doubles in cost about every 32 years, college costs have been doubling around every 15 years. In a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College, the author, Caroline Hoxby, states that universities have little incentive

In the article, “It’s Time to End Tuition at Public Universities - and Abolish Student Debt”, published by the Nation in March 2015, Jon Wiener discusses reasonings behind the actions of implementing free college tuition across the entire United States. Wiener analyzes many different claims such as the surprising cost of college tuition and the alarming rate of which college tuition costs are rising. Wiener claims that nearly two-third of college graduates are dealing with roughly $29,000 in student-loan debt. He uses these statistics to scare the readers of his article with the underlying truth. Wiener wants to make sure that he gets the point across to his audience. Wiener also ties in the United State government’s effort into his work. He discusses the humongous amount of money that is put into college tuition already: “The US government already spends lots of money on student aid. Federal spending in 2014. the College Board reports, includes $47 billion

The cost of attending college has risen drastically over the years. Statistics show that there has been a 260% increase in tuition costs since 1980. The increase in tuition cost equates to an increase in money borrowed to fund higher education. An increase in money borrowed results in an increase in debt accumulated over time. As a result of the rising figures, the economy as a whole has also suffered because of the restricted financial space many graduates find themselves in upon completion of their degree. In this paper, we will discuss college costs, reasons why they have risen, and the best way for students to pay for it.

Higher education costs have been increasing at a rapid pace, faster than inflation for the economy as a whole, for the past fifty years. It started in the 1960’s when the federal government passed the Higher Education Act to increase the amount of people able to afford and attend college. Regardless of the Unites States Government efforts to increase the affordability of college, federal aid programs have not risen to expectations due to the ever-increasing college prices. To lower the price of college, the government needs to cut back on student financial spending to go only to the lowest income families and create tax incentives for families to start saving up on their own.

Since the mid 1980s, student fees have increased at a rate approximately double the rate of inflation (Hauptman, 1997, p. 24). A 1996 study by the General Accounting Office indicates a 234 percent increase in tuition and fees at public institutions and a 220 percent increase at private universities since 1980. This compares to an 80 percent increase in inflation since 1980 (Barry, 1998, p. 39). Families today spend a considerably larger percentage of their family income on college than families two decades ago. In 1979, the average four-year tuition at a public college consumed approximately 36 percent of a family’s annual income, while a private university consumed 84 percent. By 1994, the percentages jumped to 60 and 156 respectively (Reiland, 1996, p. 36). In addition to increases in tuition, an attitude shift in regard to paying for college contributes to the problem of financing higher education. Parents today are more likely to budget college expenses out of their annual income instead of from savings, and students are expected to contribute more to financing their own education than in the past (Kiesler, 1994, p. 67).

Since the beginning of the 20th Century, college education has been available for everyone and anyone who is willing to develop their knowledge regarding a specific professional field. Currently in the United States, the percentage of high school graduates going to college has increased considerably: 68 percent in 2011 compared to 49 percent in 1940 (Menand, 2) and the record high set in 2009 with 70 percent of total high school graduates enrolled in college ("Bureau of Labor Statistics"). Notwithstanding, it has come to the attention of many that the college tuition and fees have been increasing at an accelerated rate. According to The New York Times, college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007 (Lewin, 1). This