Back in the early ‘90s, tuition, room and board (here in NC) was less than $3 or $4k…for the year.
I got a master degree in the late ‘90s, early aughts, but don’t remember what I paid. I returned to school again in ‘11 for a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. My tuition, per semester, was about $5k. That was just tuition…and at the same school where I’d gotten my original degree.
A few years ago, I wanted to know what I might expect when my son would go to college. Tuition, room and board (and accompanying fees; athletic fee, computer lab fee, etc.) added together and the price tag was staggeringly over $20k per year, not including summer school. Again, this was at the same state supported school I attended. And the price tag has only increased since then. My tuition and fees at Duke University, in ‘21-‘22, for a second master degree, was only $60k. Basically, the state has forced the in-state cost of a public university education to rival the cost of attending one of the premier, private universities in the nation.
The increases in costs are complicated and multifactorial, but a few of the reasons behind these increases are: States have cut back on school funding (this is the biggie, particularly true here in NC since the Repukes took over the legislature in ‘11*. They hate these schools that force lib’rul indoctrination on their kids), increased legal costs (schools now have full time “risk management” departments and associated lawyers), athletic programs (generally) losing money (hence the athletic fees, forcing students to subsidize money losers), and the dramatic increase in student loans from the federal government in the mid-late ‘90s, and associated decrease in grants like the Pell, which assisted low income students the most. This was part of the ‘94 Contract on America…in the fine print legalese that Newt “Newtron Bomb” Gingrich never mentioned.
With the huge increase in loan money, which allowed disbursements far above and beyond traditional school costs, loan agencies came out of the woodwork to be “loan servicers” for federal loans (the US Department of Education rarely manages loans internally). Again, part of the design of privatizing (read: giving away as much $ and government responsibility as possible, to for-profit companies). Schools were also incentivized to push loans as none of the money came from their budgets (like scholarships that are not funded by endowments or outside programs) and was guaranteed income.
*When these clowns took over, they cut so much from the state university system, an entire campus could have been shuttered. While that didn’t happen, it was likely part of their considerations. These racist asses hate the traditionally HBCUs here and some had openly expressed their desire to kill one (or more of them).
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