A New Perspective on College Costs

Cheap for Whom? How Much Higher Education Costs Taxpayers

By Mark Schneider and Jorge Klor de Alva

• Tuition at both public and private for-profit and not-for-profit US higher education institutions is increasing, but taxpayers are also bearing significant hidden costs.

• Average taxpayers provide more in subsidies to elite public and private schools than to the less competitive schools where their own children are likely being educated.

• High dropout and low graduation rates drive up taxpayer costs, so degree completion and retention should be a focus of US higher education reform and state and federal policy discussions.

• Business as usual in higher education is too expensive. We need new modes of delivery for higher education to reduce taxpayer costs and rein in tuit