It is possible to earn a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university for about $6,000, total. No liberal arts student in the humanities needs to spend over $15,000. I have written a manual on this.
Nevertheless, Obama has insisted that college is too expensive for the middle class these days. “We’ve got to make college more affordable for more young people. We can’t price the middle class out of a college education.”
How much money does it cost taxpayers per B.A. degree issued? Almost $80,000. This is from a Cato Institute report.
This is why college are costs so high — needlessly high — for a conventional college education. The subsidies run up the demand, and demand raises prices.
What is the total that the U.S. government spends on higher education? The Cato Institute estimates it at $140 billion a year. In inflation-adjusted dollars, it was $30 billion in 1985. The College Board estimates it at $169 billion.
But that’s only the beginning. There is also state and local tax funding. The Cato Institute has provided a chart showing the increase in government spending on higher education.
