College Doesn’t Have To Be A Rip Off

At around $100 billion a year, Americans heavily subsidize public colleges and universities through state taxes. With state higher education dollars exceeding those spent on hospitals, health services, and roads combined, there’s little chance of removing government subsidies anytime soon. But right now, twenty-four states lack any performance-based accountability system for the dollars that flow into public colleges and universities. That needs to change.

One of these states is Missouri, where institutions’ public funding depends on the previous year’s level and how well they lobby the budget committee. This system allows for universities with four-year graduation rates as low as 3 percent and 8 percent to continue their current, failing practices. It also allows alumni earnings to average as low as $28,000 a year for recent bachelor’s degree recipients.

Read the full piece here.