WHILE IT WOULD BE A VERY GOOD THING FOR FEWER PEOPLE TO ATTEND COLLEGE...:

College May Become Unaffordable for Most in U.S. (TAMAR LEWIN, 12/03/08, NY Times)

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

...just a glancing acquaintance with the concept of markets dispels the bizarre notion that administrators and faculty will price themselves out of jobs. They like getting paid more than they like their ivory towers.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 3, 2008 7:16 AM