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sethnintendo on 04 May 2011
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Baalzamon said:
sethnintendo said:

One other topic that should be mentioned is the rising cost of education (specifically college).  College tuition has risen almost at the same rate as healthcare.  I moved to Texas back in 2000 and went to school at Texas Tech.  At that time they just deregulated universities in Texas saying that it would lead to a decrease in tuition.  After deregulation tuition rates jumped every year almost double then the years they were regulated.  A semester at Texas Tech in 2000 used to cost around 3k now it probably cost around 4-5k.  So in ten years the tuition has almost doubled.  That doesn't seem too fair to me. 

One thing I thought I'd mention.  You realize that with a 3% yearly inflation rate, if college was $3,000 in 2000, it should be a little over $4,000 now.  I also thought I'd mention.  When you went to college, did you get $2,500 back in federal taxes if you spent $4,000 for a year?  I'm not sure when that program came around, but somebody can go to a tech school around here for like $5,500-$6,500 for a year after the federal refund.


I was just stating some ballpark figures for tuition.  After actually checking it appears total tuition and fees for year 2000 were about 3.4k (for in-state undergrad).  I was pretty far off for the 2010 tuition.  Looks like it is now 8.2k for total tuition and fees for 2010-2011.  That brings it well over 3% yearly inflation rate.  Not sure about the federal taxes back if you spent over 4,000.  Maybe that was a recent addition.  The 2.5k back in federal taxes sounds like the universities are overcharging and having the federal government foot some of the bill just to make education a tad bit "affordable".

http://www.irs.ttu.edu/Tuition/TUITFEE6.HTM

Just looking at the numbers (reminder that deregulation of Texas universities for tuition happened around 2000) it just makes me sick.  1988-2000 tuition for in-state undergrads went from 1.1k to 3.1k.  Two thousand increase for a little over a decade isn't too bad considering inflation.  Now look after deregulation....  2000-2011 tuition for in-state undergrads went from 3.4k to 8.2k.  Just seems pretty obvious to me that regulating universities so they don't charge out the ass is a good idea.