Dive Summary:
- Writing for the New York Times, David Leonhardt says the conventional wisdom that college costs are soaring is at least partly wrong.
- The biggest issue, he says, is that the list price of elite private colleges receives far more attention than the real price of college that most students pay — such as the actual price after financial aid of a public university.
- While costs have risen, Leonhardt says higher education's price increases are not so different from other industries that depend on skilled human labor, such as health care, funeral services, day care and tax preparation.
From the article:
... For many high-income families, the costs have risen more rapidly than the averages suggest, because those families have not received as much financial aid. For many low-income families, costs have increased less than the averages show. ...
