Cost Of College Tuition Essay

The issue surrounding the cost of college tuition has become a controversial and polarized topic in American politics. It has been growing in popularity over the past ten to fifteen years as students have become more significantly indebted. Agreement over the proper action for the current cost of higher education in the United Sates cannot be found. Students rightfully complain over the increasing costs of college attendance and the restricted access to the best schools. How can this be solved? There are three main ideologies currently debated. The first political conservatives argue for inaction towards the issue. The liberal argument pushes to lower the cost of education or eliminate it altogether. The third ideology proposes that education

It serves “not just to enable people to increase their lifetime incomes; it’s to help them understand the world, to stimulate the imagination, and inspire creativity in all fields” (224), says Jon Wiener of Aiming Higher: Make College Tuition Free. An educated society will be an environment for the citizens to better themselves. On the contrary, an uneducated population will struggle to grow because the people will lack initiative. Andrew P. Kelly, the author of The Cost of ‘Free’ College, supports this stating, if “Students lack clear, comparable information on the cost and quality of different post-secondary options” they will have “little incentive…to borrow prudently” (39). Besides initiative, students also need an affordable education

This trend contains the first major problem with the high costs of tuition. The increased spending begs the question, where does the extra money go? Revealing its allocation is central to determining the fairness of the increases. Over the past 30 years according to the publication, Costs up, Results Down in Higher Education, students have a watched tuition rise “more than 220 percent”, yet most of this extra spending is being “allocated on non-instructional activities” (58). Schools are more concerned with providing an appealing and competitive atmosphere than truly fostering education. The most important budget share of institutional spending is the share for actual education as it relates to the students. Shown in figure eight of Donna M. Desrochers and Jane V. Wellman’s report, Trends in College Spending 1999-2009. Where Does the Money Come from? Where Does It Go? What Does It Buy? A Report of the Delta Cost Project, total spending has grown at a much faster rate than spending on education alone (24). This means that a portion of the extra dollars you pay is being allocated for the institution’s private use. Beyond increased spending for non-instructional activities misallocation continues deeper into the share for education related