Bursting the Higher Ed Bubble

David Frum:

“Will Higher Education be the Next Bubble to Burst?” So asks a recent op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The question is powerful. Data points:

  • Over the past quarter-century, the average cost of higher education has risen at a rate four times faster than inflation–twice as fast as the cost of health care.
  • Tuition, room, and board at private colleges can cost $50,000 per year or more.
  • The market crash of 2008 inflicted terrible damage on college endowments. The Commonfund Institute reports that endowments dropped by an average of 23 percent in the five months ending Nov. 30, 2008.

Authors Joseph Cronin and Howard Horton (respectively a past Massachusetts secretary of Education and the president of the New England College of Business and Finance) comment: