Budget 2011: $173 Billion in Subsidies Won’t Solve College Affordability Problem

Dan Lips / February 02, 2010

Who was it who said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

According to the Department of Education, the Obama administration’s budget proposes: “$173 billion in loans, grants, tax credits and work-study programs to help students go to college.” But experience has shown that simply increasing federal subsidies for higher education hasn’t solved the college affordability problem. After all, federal spending on student aid has doubled over the past decade, but college tuition costs are higher than ever. Since 1982, the cost of attending college has increased by 439 percent (or four times faster than the rate of inflation!).

Rather than continuing to increase subsidies, policymakers should be looking for ways to solve the college affordability problem by lowering costs and improving efficiency. We offered some ideas for new strategies to do that in our new paper: “Ways to Make Higher Education More Affordable.” (more…)