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Comment by secabeen | Hacker News Reader

>Their non-profit status hasn't even done much to keep costs low, as they can just keep hiring tons of redundant administrators and have never-ending construction, thereby justifying higher tuitions as "operating costs".

Is there any evidence of non-profit universities doing that? Here's the best expenditure data I have from the Department of Education. Per-student real expenditures are up about 20% over 17 years. That doesn't seem like "hop(ping) on the gravy train".

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_334.30.a...

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The data you linked to is for private non-profit universities.

At least in the state I went to public university at, its not so much that per-student expenses went up (though they did to some degree), its that the State started funding a far lower percentage of costs, leaving the student (and the student's ability to take loans) to pay for a larger share.

> funding a far lower percentage of costs

Yes, in the past few decdes there is much less of a sense that having an educated population is a common good, and much more of a sense that it is an individual investment.

This is a significantly underappreciated cause of the student debt crisis. People love to harp on overpaid or unneeded administrators and buildings but they are largely unaware of how much state budget cuts have contributed to rising tuition. My public alma mater gets well under 10% of their funding from the state at this point.

Then what's the explanation for the thousands of private non-profit universities who have never received state funding?

They charge 2-3X higher tuition.

In the US, 4-year private (non-profit) college tuition averages somewhere around $60K/year, while 4-year public (in-state) college tuition is closer to $20K. Out of state tuition is much higher, and state schools make a "profit" on out of state student ($50K tuition). But they are still competitive because similar private colleges cost even more.

Tuition was never the main revenue source for universities, hence why students are paying such a high burden

Yes, but there's similar data in an adjacent table for public institutions. I think either dataset still shows clearly that Universities haven't greatly increase spending. It is, as you note, the huge disinvestments in tertiary education by the state governments.

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