How to reduce college costs

When the Congress comes back to work (about the time of the Super Tuesday Primary) they will begin the final process for considering the reauthorization of the higher education act. One of the key elements of this reauthorization has been college costs. Many members of congress have argued that college costs are out of control. I served on a congressionally established commission to study the issue. Like many other congressional ideas it was an odd amalgam. It required the commission to complete its work in 120 days. We worked hard and produced a pretty credible report which argued a couple of points. First, the issue of why college costs what it does is complex, and it is. Second, colleges are not structured in a way to look at costs carefully. Third, we argued that some common terminology and methodology would help clarify the situation. And almost immediately the National Association of College and University Business Officers developed a methodology to estimate the cost of an undergraduate education. Finally, we argued that the rich diversity of American higher education was an important quality to maintain. The Economist a few years later in one of their periodic surveys on an issue argued that the strength of the American system was that it was not a system.

So how do the chambers do on reducing college cost in this bill? Perhaps the best demonstration is their new requirements for reporting things. The US Senate adds more than 150 new reporting requirements, while the House adds almost 190. Each of these will require some diversion from the activity of teaching and learning to reporting. The new requirements ask for reports on college costs, campus safety, student results, financial aid issues and a host of other things. What that ultimately does to college costs is obvious to anyone but a member of congress.

Perhaps before the next reauthorization, which should come around in five years but based on this experience might take a lot longer, university officials could take some time with members of congress to think carefully about a set of information that would be useful but not intrusive. Many colleges are reluctant to even tell the good news about what they do. And many politicians believe that a spoonful of reporting makes everything right. Neither is correct.