Keep tuition down by making colleges more efficient

ON THE AGENDA

Will Too Much Debt Fuel A Double-Dip Recession?

Francie Grace
Nov 20, 2009

That was the question raised by President Obama during an interview in China (one of our biggest creditors), as cartoonists seized the opportunity to comment on America's looming national debt. "It is important," said Mr.

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Will a Delay on the Climate Treaty be Time Well-Spent?

Scott Bittle
Nov 16, 2009

World leaders flatly admitted this weekend what everyone pretty much knew: there won't be a major deal on climate change at the big conference in Copenhagen next month. Instead, leaders will try to keep the process going, in hopes of coming up with a deal next year.

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FACING UP TO THE
Nation's Finances

National Debt Clock

Keep tuition down by making colleges more efficient

PERSPECTIVE IN BRIEF

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The reason so many families struggle to send their kids to college is simple: tuition keeps going up, outpacing both inflation and family income. Colleges have to take responsibility for prices that go up so far, so fast, and the best way to solve the problem is for colleges to become more efficient and competitive. Colleges need to make better use of new techniques like distance learning to reach more students at lower cost. For-profit educational institutions are experimenting with new ways of teaching and should be encouraged -- if nothing else, the competition will keep colleges sharp. We also need stronger accountability for public universities and community colleges. Unlike the K-12 education system, there aren't many yardsticks for measuring the quality of a college education and few ways of knowing whether taxpayers and students are getting what they pay for.

PERSPECTIVE IN DETAIL

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What Should be Done?

Push colleges to use nontraditional teaching methods, like extension courses and courses conducted over the Internet or television.

Establish objective measures, such as testing, class size and faculty qualifications to find out how much college students are learning, and monitor dropout rates. State governments should consider these results when making funding decisions.

Encourage the expansion of for-profit institutions in higher education.

Require public colleges to become more efficient, dropping unpopular or irrelevant programs, adapting new business methods and focus on teaching.

Arguments For This Approach

U.S. taxpayers spend millions of dollars a year on higher education, either directly to colleges or indirectly via financial aid. Yet they don't even know if they're getting their money's worth. No one would accept this situation in their local police, fire department or school system. Why should public colleges be any different?

This is simple consumer protection. A college education is one of the most important -- and expensive -- purchases a family makes and yet they rarely have any better information than the best colleges lists published in magazines.

The traditional campus setting is great, but it isn't the only way to learn. Courses offered over the Internet, on television, or in other nontraditional ways can reach more students at less cost.

Arguments Against This Approach

A college education isn't like a K-12 curriculum. There isn't any consistency among college curricula, and it's very difficult to measure the higher-order thinking skills that colleges aim to teach.

Education isn't like making widgets. College is about academic exploration. Standardized testing would obliterate this academic freedom and turn colleges into factories that just churn out workers, not thinkers.

Colleges aren't businesses. They can?t be concerned solely with what sells. Colleges have the important role of passing culture to new generations. Understanding literature, art and the humanities are part of what makes an educated person.

Tuition at public colleges usually goes up when state governments cut back on higher education funding, which they often do in lean budget years. If the public really wants to keep tuition affordable, they should invest more of their tax dollars into the university system.