Tuition has nearly TRIPLED 10 Students on the UCLA campus protested the university's tuition increases financial aid and scholarships more than cover the cost of tuition and fees Yet students at four year public and private institutions have been hard hit At private schools the average amount of student financial aid tripled between 1990 and 2015 Over that same period net tuition increased by approximately 30 percent from 11,400 to 14,890 in 2015 dollars Public schools saw an even larger leap Between 1990 and 2015 average student aid increased by more than three times while the net price more than doubled from 1 890 to 3,980 in 2015 dollars It is not only tuition and fees that put pressure on students pocketbooks The prices of room and board and
11 textbooks have also increased Room and board rates have doubled at public and private colleges since 1980 The amount students pay for textbooks has grown at a rate even faster than tuition and fees Perhaps the most important dollar amount in this is the one that has barely increased the median family income Since the 1970s the median family income has stayed relatively flat when accounting for inflation In 1974 families earned 62,000 per year in 2015 dollars In 2015 the median family income was 64,000 As a result college tuition even the discounted net price eats up more of a family's income than ever before Overall higher education has become less affordable to all but the highest income earners students from families with annual incomes of more than 200,000 each year HOW TUITION WORKS There was a time when schools determined their tuition by looking at the rates of their competitors However tuition setting has become an intense numbers game To determine tuition a school first calculates its education cost or the amount of money it takes to educate one
individual This number varies greatly from school to school Some of the most elite schools may spend more than 100,000 to educate each student per year These education costs mostly come from professors salaries and benefits In the last 20 years however the number of administrators on campus has also grown considerably and their salaries and benefits are also calculated as education costs Student fees are also part of this tuition setting process These fees pay for amenities and services that are not considered to be educational costs Recreation centers transportation technology and sports all are among the places student fees are allocated If any one of the variables that make up tuition and fees increases then the cost of educating a student also rises The average student must budget to pay more than 1,000 per year for textbooks and supplies
13 Once the education cost has been calculated schools subtract from it the amount of revenue they earn from other sources For public schools this number is predominantly state funding while private schools earn greater revenue from endowments and charitable donations However public schools also earn endowment money and private schools can get money from the state The total sum of this revenue amounts to the school's general subsidy At wealthier private schools it can amount to tens of thousands of dollars per student The difference between the education cost and general subsidy becomes the school's listed tuition Overall all students receive a subsidy on their education although the size of the subsidy depends on the wealth of the school HIGHER EDUCATION CAN'T BE A LUXURY IT IS AN ECONOMIC IMPERATIVE THAT EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA SHOULD BE ABLE TO AFFORD IS COLLEGE WORTH IT Across the country many PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS 2012 parents approximately 95 percent according to one 2015 survey see education as the key to their children's success Data supports this
