INTRODUCTION
“It’s 2018 and Americans are more burdened by student loan debt than ever. In fact, the average student loan debt for Class of 2017 graduates was $39,400, up six percent from the previous year… Americans owe over $1.48 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers. That’s about $620 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt.”
As reported by the College Board,[1] education costs have risen at an alarming rate in the past three decades, with an increase of 129% for private nonprofit four-year institutions and an increase of 213% for public four-year institutions. From 1987-1988 until 2017-2018, tuition rose from USD 15,160 to USD 34,740 per year for private nonprofit four-year institutions, and in the same time period public four-year institution tuition rose from USD 3,190 to USD 9,970 per year, adjusted to reflect 2017 U.S. dollars.
As CNBC tried to put that into perspective, they pointed out in an article that a 1988 graduate of Harvard University would have spent USD 17,100 on tuition during their senior year. Now, in their 50s, they would have to pay USD 44,990 in tuition for their child to attend Harvard today. That makes the current cost of tuition more than 2.5 times as much as it was in 1988—a markup of 163%.[2]
Also to keep track of college tuition and fees, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a college tuition and fees item as part of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). This item is a component of the tuition, other school fees, and childcare index, and it is included in the education and communication group of the CPI. The college tuition and fixed fees item accounts for about 55% of the weight of the tuition and other school fees index and is the largest component of this index.[4]
