How Much Money Does The Government Give Colleges

Here'due south Exactly How Much the Regime Would Have to Spend to Brand Public College Tuition-Gratuitous

And the grand total is...

A mere $62.six billion dollars!

According to new Department of Educational activity data, that's how much tuition public colleges collected from undergraduates in 2012 across the entire U.s.. And I'thousand not being facetious with the word mere, either. The New America Foundation says that the federal government spent a whole $69 billion in 2013 on its mishmash of financial aid programs, such as Pell Grants for low-income students, tax breaks, work study funding. And that doesn't even include loans.

If we were we scrapping our current arrangement and starting from scratch, Washington could brand public college tuition free with the money it sets bated its scattershot attempts to brand college affordable today.

Of course, nosotros're non going to showtime from scratch (and I'thou not even sure nosotros should want to make state schools totally free). Merely I like to make this bespeak every so often because I call back it underscores what a dislocated mess higher education finance is in this country. On the whole, Americans seem to want affordable colleges that are accessible to all. Simply rather than simply using our resources to maintain a cheap public organization (and think, public schools brainwash 75 percentage of undergrads), nosotros spill them into a adequately wasteful and expensive private sector. At one signal, a Senate investigation establish that the for-profit sector alone was chowing down on 25 percent of all federal aid dollars.

If that story sounds clumsily similar the bug the U.S. faces with healthcare costs, well, that'due south considering information technology is like. Americans take an allergy to straightforward policy solutions involving the public sector. And for that, we pay a price.

Update—Friday January. three, 3:45 PM: Simply to clarify, because some readers accept asked, making tuition free in 2012 would take required $62.6 billion on top of what state and local governments already spend subsidizing public colleges, as well equally some of the federal spending that doesn't go towards financial aid. Again, y'all tin can find a detailed breakdown of how our colleges are funded in the Department of Educational activity's information.

For anybody interested in reading more about the thought of making public college tuition free, and the vast array of economic considerations that would entail, hither'south a lengthy piece I wrote final year.

Update—Fri Jan. three, 4:31 PM:Ane more update to answer some other proficient question I've received. Technically, you could say the boosted cost of making college tuition free would be fifty-fifty cheaper than $62.6 billion. How come? Considering most Pell Grant money is already spent at public colleges. In 2011 - 2012, state school students received $21.8 billion in grants. So, if you subtract that from the full needed to completely eliminate tuition, it the sum would exist closer to $xl billion. (Apologies for not teasing that betoken out earlier. I'd noted it in a previous article and didn't think to repeat it.)

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/

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