Why Does College Cost So Much? Review

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Why Does College Cost So Much ReviewIn the plethora of books about the "crisis" in higher education, Archibald and Feldman's book serves as a welcome relief from the sensationalism and reliance on anecdotal evidence that permeates the literature. As a college professor myself, with two children poised to enter college in a couple of years, I have read most of the recent volumes published on the sorry state of higher education (e.g., "Higher Education?", "The Five Year Party," "Real Education," among others). While many of these books make for entertaining reading in their descriptions of students who don't study, professors who don't teach, and administrators who line their pockets with exorbitant salaries, what has been missing for a long time in the higher education debate is a reasoned analysis based on empirical data.
"Why does college cost so much?" provides exactly that reasoned analysis. I won't repeat the details of their argument here, but essentially Archibald and Feldman present a compelling argument that--contrary to public opinion--college costs have not escalated wildly out of control but rather track closely the increases in prices for services offered by highly skilled providers, an increase that is inextricably linked to the gains in labor productivity in other domains (a phenomenon termed "cost disease"). Much of the book is devoted to making that argument a heck of a lot clearer than I just did in that one-sentence summary, as well as offering ample empirical data to back their argument up.
There were several major conclusions from this book that I found particularly important--and reassuring: First, while tuition at a handful of very elite schools are indeed alarmingly high, there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of fine colleges and universities that are actually quite affordable in today's dollars. Although Archibald and Feldman do not say this in so many words, basically one of their messages is that it is NOT a public crisis if little Johnny can't attend Harvard while paying Obscure State U. prices. Second, the sticker shock a prospective parent sees when reading the brochures of fancy colleges does not reflect the often substantial degrees of tuition discounting that goes on. A relatively few families pay full price for their children at selective institutions (and these families do not need to read a book about college costs), but most families receive at least some form of discounting in terms of grants or low-interest loans, a discounting that helps to make college even more affordable. Last but definitely not least, I found their recommendation in chapter 14 of simplifying the college financial aid system by establishing universal college-savings accounts that would be federally subsidized to be highly insightful, and I hope that their policy recommendations are heard by the powers-that-be and enter into the public and governmental debate about higher education.
I was also particularly intrigued by the chapter looking at the increasing role of distance and online learning in higher education, as I have seen in my own institution and other colleges a definite push by college administrators to expand online education as a way of increasing tuition revenues at relatively low cost. Archibald and Feldman dispassionately discuss the economic advantages of distance education, as well as the factors that seem likely to prevent distance education from supplanting traditional college education entirely in the future.
Books that describe drinking binges among students and faculty who only show up for 3 hours a week to teach a class will certainly be more entertaining than the present volume, and they'll get the public's dander up more. But this book goes beyond anecdotal cherry-picking to describe the empirical state of higher education costs, and it offers important policy recommendations that deserve serious attention.
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