New moms and dads with visions of Ivy League degrees dancing in their heads should be prepared to face a bill of $422,320 in today’s dollars if Junior heads off to one the country’s priciest colleges as a member of the class of 2034.
If college costs keep rising as they have for the last three decades, the inflation-adjusted price of four years of tuition alone will more than double at private colleges and nearly triple at public universities by the time a baby born this year is ready to enroll, an analysis by The Daily shows.
Even after adjusting for inflation, college tuition has increased by an average of 3.5 percent a year at private schools and 4.5 percent a year at public schools, the analysis showed.
___
The skyrocketing costs of college wouldn’t be so bad if family incomes had increased apace. But in real terms, the incomes of families with at least one child under age 18 have grown only about 1 percent since 1987, according to census data.
“For whatever constellation of reasons, college prices are going up significantly faster than family income,” said Timothy McDonough, a spokesman for the American Council on Education, which represents college and university presidents and chancellors.
Is this sustainable?
No comments:
Post a Comment