When the College Savings Foundation considered topics for its third annual summit, one issue stood out as clearly as the dollar amounts involved. That led to an easy decision on the subject matter Wednesday for a panel at Washington, D.C.: “The College Cost Conundrum: Why Is College So High?”
Peter Mazareas, chair of the CSF Summit Task Force, said the driving force was “the continued growth in tuition rates above the inflation rate, and just the continued escalation of costs. Compounded with a trillion dollars in student loan debt and a high level of default on student loans, we thought those factors made this a real public policy issue that affects everybody,” he said.
Art Hauptman, a higher education policy consultant, said the major challenges are closing the gap between the costs of attendance and resources; narrowing the differences in participation and attainment among rich/poor students and majority/minority students; and reducing the reliance on debt to pay for higher education. He said the government’s relationship with institutions of higher education has led to unintended and negative consequences, like the increase in Pell Grants, leading schools to reduce their aid for lower-income students and shift it to middle-class students.
“To what extent does financial aid availability affect pricing?” Hauptman said. “To what extent do schools feel like they can increase prices due to the availability of student loans? These are subtle consequences of policy that we tend not to look at. We have a series of problems, and putting more money into Pell Grants isn’t going to solve them.”
Emerson College president Lee Pelton was part of a session titled “Perspectives from Higher Education.” Pelton said private schools are holding down their prices “pretty good,” while fellow panelist Terry Hartle, a senior vice president with the American Council on Education, said the general public consistently overestimates the price of going to school.
But Pelton mentioned several initiatives that are under way to assist families, including a “Money Matters” program for Emerson students. A number of other schools have issued four-year-degree guarantees, offering to pay for a fifth year if students don’t complete their graduation requirements on time. Gil Brown, chief budget officer at George Mason University, said GMU is maximizing routes for students to graduate and pay less, “including partnerships with community colleges and private partners.”
With the fiscal cliff looming and federal budget concerns dominating every move on Capitol Hill, all education programs could be on the table as Congress weighs reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Representatives from the Senate and House committees on education told summit attendees that college affordability and quality are priorities and will be hot topics in the next session. Also, legislation that would make student loans easier to repay—based on employment and/or income—is being considered.
