School Information System: Adjusting for inflaton, the cost of attending a public, in-state college rose 268% from 1981 to 2011

September 9, 2012

Adjusting for inflaton, the cost of attending a public, in-state college rose 268% from 1981 to 2011

Late summer is when parents bring their children to college. As they drive to campus they're worried about tuition increases, the burden of student debt and whether their children will find jobs when they graduate.

Some parents and high-school students are beginning to question the value of a four-year college degree in this post-Great Recession world. And you can certainly understand why they have these concerns:

College costs keep rising. The College Board reports that from 1981 to 2011, after adjusting for inflation, the average published cost of going to college is up 180% for private, nonprofit four-year colleges and 268% for in-state, public four-year colleges.

Wow. I remember my first semester at the UW- Madison 31 years ago. In state tuition was $399/semester. That is $944 in 2010, according to this calculator. Current in state UW-Madison tuition is about 5,000/semester. Crazy.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 9, 2012 2:35 AM
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Comments

When I lived in California they instituted tuition at community colleges for the first time. There had previously been a state commitment to providing a free two year college education for all. Tuition (in 1993) was $6/credit hour and people were up in arms that college was no longer affordable.

Posted by: Steve Rankin at September 9, 2012 10:17 PM

But, isn't he forgetting that the States are defunding the universities (too many liberal professors and staff and students would be the reason -- as this defunding process was developed under Reagan to do just that).

So why shouldn't to costs be going up. Makes sense to me.

Posted by: Larry Winkler at September 10, 2012 1:18 PM

"Mr. Chancellor, tear down this school!"

I had no idea that part of Reagan's war against liberalism was to institute a plan to defund incubators of liberal ideology. That's right up there with putting Bush 1 on that spy plane to hang onto the hostages until the elections were over.

I always liked Reagan and like him even more now. Thanks Larry.

Posted by: Reed Schneider at September 10, 2012 5:03 PM