The ever-increasing cost of education is not sustainable, reports Louis E. Lataif for Forbes. Higher education in America, historically the envy of the world, is rapidly growing out of reach. For the past quarter-century, the cost of higher education has grown 440%, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Education, nearly four times the rate of inflation and double the rate of health care cost increases. The cost increases have occurred at both public and private colleges. Like many situations too good to be true–like the dot-com boom, the Enron bubble, the housing boom or the health care cost explosion–the ever-increasing cost of university education is not sustainable. Just 10 years ago the cost of a four-year public college education amounted to 18% of the annual income of middle-income families. Ten years later, it amounted to 25% of that family’s average annual income. The cost of attending a private university is about double the cost of public universities. Think of higher education as the proverbial frog in boiling water. It feels very warm and comfy but soon will be cooked…
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U. of Florida debates flat-fee tuition
The Miami Herald reports that Florida’s state university system is mulling a one-size-fits-all tuition structure for full-time students–an idea that could lead some to graduate sooner, but also carries the risk of students biting off more than they can chew. Under the plan, which could receive final approval from the state Board of Governors as soon as November, full-time students at participating universities would pay a flat rate per semester, regardless of how many classes he or she actually takes. The pricing structure, known as block tuition, is already the norm at private universities across the country, and has been adopted by some high-profile public universities as well, including The University of Texas at Austin and UCLA. An exact pricing model for Florida schools has yet to be hammered out, and schools may decide to charge slightly different rates. If a school chose 15 credit hours as the standard, a student taking only 12 credits would be paying for a class he or she wasn’t taking. On the plus side, a student taking 18 credits would be taking an extra class for free…
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