One of the givens in American society is college being very expensive. If my words don’t do this justice, just take a look at today’s infographic.
Today’s infographic highlights the rising cost of a college education–more specifically a college education in the United States. College has always cost a fair amount, but the past 40 years or so have been ridiculous in terms of rising costs for college students. While there is certainly a lot of information to digest, it can be best summarized with one fact. Inflation in the United States is up 236% since 1980, while average college tuition and fees have increased by 1200%!
CPI inflation takes into account overall inflation within the nation, and it has definitely increased at a gradual rate. With that being said, it pales in comparison to the college tuition inflation. As you can see in the infographic, while CPI inflation looks like maybe a little hill, the college tuition inflation slope looks like that of a mountain.
November 2020 saw the lowest year-over-year rise in tuition at fees in a while, with a percentage of 0.6%. Given how hectic 2020 was, however, you’d think that this percentage would be lower or even negative!
Hopefully, as the years go by, college education becomes more affordable, but with the trend we’ve seen over the last 40 years, this may be quite unlikely.