The Cost of Education

Take a few minutes to read this article first.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/12/education/12tuition.html?ex=1323579600&en=dbfec38a47b56028&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

As an educator at a private university, I found the article interesting. First, the operating budget of one private school with 1500 students is over a $100 million? Here we have over 6000 students and an operating budget just over half that. I would be extremely interested to know our cost per student ratio. Second, I can see value in raising tuition to match expectations. For example, over thanksgiving my father-in-law sent me off to purchase a printer. I went out and bought a name brand printer on sale for a ridiculously low price. He immediately assumed that the printer must be bad for some reason (last year's model, not dependable, etc.) because it was cheap. My favorite example of this is haute cuisine. If I tried to serve you a small piece of raw beef liver covered in goat's blood, you'd head for Wendy's. However, if you were in some fancy restaurant some people would pay $125 and call it good.

Maybe we shouldn't fear tuition increases as much. To be honest, we could raise tuition and increase the amount of aid per student and end up at a net push financially. Each student would pay the same amount as they are today, but they would be getting a better "deal". Would you rather go to a school giving you a $10,000 scholarship over 4 years or one giving you a $15,000 scholarship over 4 years?