The University of Colorado Regents voted recently to raise tuition by 9.3%. Undoubtedly this price hike will lead to hand wringing and teeth gnashing about the skyrocketing price of higher education, and how universities are pricing themselves beyond the reach of the average family.
Stop whining.
Tuition increases are perfectly understandable, if you consider the economic and political backdrop. First, economics. Higher education is a labor-intensive business. Our students deserve the best teachers, small class sizes, and individualized services. All those people who serve our students cost money. Salaries and benefits make up 75-85% of a university budget. Consider that health care costs alone went up by an average of 6% nationwide last year, and tuition hikes become more comprehensible.
In addition, we continue to demand that our public institutions to provide more and better services. An article on the front page of the Post on Sunday highlighted the imperative for public universities to offer specialized services to first generation students to keep them in school. More services means higher prices. Who will pay?
Information technology also has driven up the cost of higher education. Twenty-five years ago, campus computing was relatively cheap and relegated to the basement of a dingy building inhabited by a handful of computer scientists. Now students, faculty, and staff alike require PCs on every desk and wireless access under every tree.
We could also mention higher energy costs to heat the dorms, light the classrooms, and power the campus vans that shuttle students around campus. Or we could discuss how the higher costs of bread and milk put pressure on campus cafeterias to raise their prices.
Then there is the burgeoning demand for luxury campus amenities, like the spanking new Academic Village at CSU, or the food courts, climbing walls, and exercise facilities our students seem to require. Some campuses even offer discounted massages and free Napster accounts. These amenities are, of course, ancillary to the quality of the education our universities provide. Yet provide them we must, or the students will not come. It’s a competitive market, you see.
While economics explains quite a bit, we cannot ignore the role of politics. The fundamental question is whether the state has a legitimate interest in providing higher education to its citizenry at an affordable price. If so, then we-the taxpayers-have to pony up the money to pay for it. If, on the other hand, higher education is not a public good (with benefits to the whole society) but a private one (benefiting only the ones who educate themselves), then the burden of paying for it falls to the consumer.
Today, those who see higher education as a private good have the political upper hand. Just yesterday, our legislators were bickering over how to untie the Gordian Knot of TABOR, the Gallagher Amendment, and Amendment 23. Republicans want to keep taxes low. Democrats want more funds for higher education. Little government vs. big government. Free markets vs. public goods. It’s an old debate. A stalemate, actually.
The trouble is, Coloradans can’t have it both ways. We cannot have cheap higher education for all (with small class sizes, wired classrooms, remedial education services, and classy residence halls) unless we, the taxpayers, are willing to pay for it. At the moment, we are not.
Of course, those of use who advocate greater spending on higher education could be marching to the Capitol to force our legislators to untie our constitutional Gordian Knot. Instead, most of us are content to sit on our hands and whine: tuition is too expensive; the poor have less access; student debt loads are astronomical; my taxes are too high.
And while the moaning and groaning continues, what’s a parent to do? I advise them to take a deep breath and whip out the checkbook. Even with hefty annual tuition increases, there are few better investments than a college education.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This online-only guest commentary has not been edited.
Mark A. Montgomery, Ph.D., is a former college professor and administrator and the president of , which offers individualized college counseling to high school students.
