There's a lot of hype around the high cost of college, and students are wondering where their money is going.

Also watch: "Is Free College As Good As It Sounds?"    • Is Free College As Good As It Sounds?  

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**How did college get to be so expensive?
After the passing of the G.I Bill, the U.S. government gave money to returning soldiers to pay for college. This means regular everyday folks could get a higher education instead of just wealthy people, which worked as the percentage of folks going to college grew from its signing up until a few years ago.

**What is administrative bloat?
After the pandemic forced at-home learning on many students, they started thinking about where exactly their dollars were going. Administrative bloat is a term used to describe when resources and money go to administrative positions instead of teaching positions. The Department of Education found that positions like college presidents, deans, and provosts grew by 60 percent between 1993 and 2009, which was 10 times the rate of tenured faculty positions. However, is that all bad? As college becomes more diverse and more competitive there is a higher need for positions in student services to ensure students have equal opportunities at succeeding.

***How do cuts in state funding contribute to rising tuition?
Beyond administrative bloat and increases in student services there’s been a trend of states cutting funding to schools and to make up for that decrease in funding the cost of college has risen thus increasing the amount of debt a student needs to take out to be able to pay for it. Women and minorities are taking the brunt of the debt as they on average have more than white borrowers. The high amount of debt students are accumulating is slowing down trademarks of being an adult and again has folks reevaluating if paying all that money is worth it for them.

**What are some ideas for making college more affordable in the U.S.?
President Biden announced canceling some debt for borrowers making under 125k a year. However, that doesn’t stop the cost of college from being extremely expensive for most folks out there. Other countries offer free college or tuition at a way cheaper price than here in the U.S but that means getting rid of some of the more glamorous things we associate with the college experience like living on campus for example. It also means potentially higher taxes for citizens, basically, a lot would have to change in the states for college to resemble what European countries are doing.

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TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:53 - History of college as we know it today
02:04 - Where are students' dollars going?
03:11 - Administrative Bloat
04:23 - Cuts caused costs of college to rise
05:30 - Disportationate debt held by minorities and women
06:40 - Free college like EU Countries?

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