A report issued by the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center illustrates how trends in tuition and fees for college degrees have impacted access to advanced education in American higher education institutions. Using annual survey data from United States colleges and universities, the report estimates that the cost of attendance at public, private, four-year, and two-year colleges has increased at a rate between 3.8% and 5.6% per year above the rate of general inflation since the beginning of the 21^st century. Since 2010-11 alone, the average in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions including room and board have gone up 6.0%. These trends are shown in the following chart, featured in the report.

The College Advocacy and Policy Center’s report attributes the rise in prices, in part, to the weak economy since the 2007-09 recession and the continuation of trends in state funding that limit public funds toward education. With increases in tuition outpacing inflation and public investment, the opportunity of a higher education becomes increasingly available to only a select few.

For lawmakers looking to balance annual budgets in a time of fiscal austerity, the full impact of cutting funding to educational institutions is hidden throughout the typical budget cycle. From a long-term perspective, investment in advanced education holds great promise for constituents as well as the bottom line. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northwestern University estimated, after accounting for lower tax revenue, higher cash and in-kind transfer costs, and imposed incarceration costs, that those with some college or a bachelor’s degree will have a lifetime net fiscal impact that is $174,277 and $505,695 higher, respectively, than those with only a high school education. The average cost of a four-year degree in 2010, including tuition, fees, and the opportunity cost associated with attending school rather than holding a job, was estimated at $82,000 — less than half the increased contribution of those with some college and one sixth of the increased estimated lifetime contribution of those with a bachelors degree, as compared to those with a high school education.

Previous projects from the College Advocacy and Policy Center and others have illustrated the impacts on well-being associated with an advanced education. Data from the Census Bureau’s 2010 Current Population Survey show that the risk of living in a food insecure household among those with at least some college education (not attaining a degree) was 17.7% compared to 19.2% among high school graduates and 29.4% among high school dropouts.¹ Additionally, adults who receive some college education have lower rates of fair or poor health status, diabetes, and premature mortality than those with a high school education or less.

A healthier population also translates into a more economically healthy community. Schoeni and coauthors estimated that giving all Americans the health status of college-educated adults would generate more than $1 trillion per year in health benefits.² Cutting spending in ways that ultimately increase costs is not sound economic policy and a lack of attention to the long-term impacts of slashing education budgets potentially results in greater fiscal dilemmas in the future.

^[1]U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement, 2010
^[2]Schoeni RF, Dow WH, Miller WD, Pamuk ER. The economic value of improving the health of disadvantaged Americans.