The Cost of Higher Education -- One possible solution

We can fix the out of control costs of higher education.  

First, it is impossible to put a value on education.  The richness and wonder that come from learning extend beyond the classroom and make our whole existence more meaningful.  I treasure the blessings, growth and insights that education brings and I hope that all can enjoy the opportunity to learn and teach continually.  However, education and learning are separate from tuition.  

Historically, formal education was available to the elite and the few.  The more elevated on the social ladder the more likely that a higher education would be available.  It’s curious that, even as I write that sentence, the concept of “higher” education grates on my mind.  I am grateful that I experienced a university and graduate-level education, but other learning and trades should not sit on a lower threshold.  Nonetheless, there continues to be a steady demand for everyone to obtain a higher education.  

With the increased demand for higher education you would expect an increase in the cost of that service.   But what we see today is simply unsustainable.  The costs that universities charge for tuition, fees, books, etc. is nothing short of outrageous.  Not because the cost is too high. The problem is the price is too high.  

Markets set the price of their goods and services as high as demand allows.  In the United States we have inflated the price of a college education through student loans.  If it were illegal to offer a student loan, How much could universities charge for their service?  Obviously much less or astronomically higher but with far fewer students. But that is no solution.  The poor and marginalized would be left aside and the market would lack any incentive to find better solutions.  

My suggestion.  Since colleges and universities no longer market themselves as centers of higher learning for the purpose of and intrinsic value of learning they should bear some of the risk of the price they set for an education.  

Can you imagine what the tuition level would be if the university had to guarantee all or a substantial part of every student loan? Universities would have to reevaluate what the economic value is of the service that they provide.  Most schools market themselves by showing how much more money a student can earn with a degree from their institution versus their income without that degree.  

They tell them, “Borrow 10s and 100s of thousands of dollars today and pay it back after you leave school.  It’ll be worth it.”  They make the promise, they provide the service, but then they are done.

I suggest that as long as the student makes appropriate efforts to find employment, that if those efforts are unsuccessful, then the school that provided the education be on the hook for some of that loan.   That risk would demand that they set a more correct  market price for the service they offer and the skyrocketing costs of education could find a market control.