re: I don’t get why it is more costly for colleges to educate students now vs the 70s/80s

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I see I struck a nerve.

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Just curious. Your initial response indicated that you are learned about tenure and promotion.

You can decide to use the bigger drill if you want to.

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Explain to me why a school like LSU could give a 1970s student a 4 year education/degree at 4 times less the cost as a 2022 student

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I don’t have data for the 70’s, but I found data going back to the 90’s on revenue by source at LSU.

The unrestricted revenue, which is the general fund that includes tuition and state funding, was..

Unrestricted Revenue:
1994 - $211,720,580
2019 - $566,408,526

Here’s what that looks like in 2019 dollars, once you adjust for inflation.

Unrestricted Revenue (2019 Dollars):
1994 - $365,235,143
2019 - $566,408,526

Still looks like the school is spending a lot more money. But full-time enrollment was 19,703 in 1994. Full-time enrollment was 27,225 in 2019.

Unrestricted Revenue per Full-Time Student (2019 Dollars):
1994 - $18,537
2019 - $20,805

That still doesn’t tell the entire story for a couple of reasons:
- Part-time enrollment was also higher in 2019
- Inflation adjustment via CPI doesn’t do a great job of capturing increases in technology costs.

That being said, I think this is close enough to get the point across. Funding per student has increased, but nowhere near as much as tuition. Which brings me to the next point..

Unrestricted Revenue per Full-Time Student, by Source (2019 Dollars):

1994 Tuition & Fees - $6,417
1994 State Appropriations - $10,668
1994 Other - $1,452

2019 Tuition & Fees - $15,121
2019 State Appropriations - $5,162
2019 Other - $522

(Note that this is not intended to represent the exact full-time tuition rate. It’s just the total revenue divided by the number of full-time students. Actual full-time tuition should be lower on average because of part-time students.)

In 1994 tuition and fees made up 35% of the unrestricted budget while state appropriations made up 58%. In 2019, tuition and fees made up 73% of the unrestricted budget while state appropriations made up 25%.

State appropriations in 2021 were less than half of what they were in 1994, when adjusted for inflation.

So the gist of it is - yeah, the university’s inflation-adjusted operating cost per full-time student increased by $2,268 from 1994 to 2019. Meanwhile, state funding decreased by $5,506 per full time student over the same time period.

It’s certainly fair to look at the increase in operating costs and question whether the university is being efficient. But if you’re asking why tuition has increased, the #1 reason is that the costs have been shifted from tax dollars to tuition dollars.

I don’t expect that everyone will look at this as a bad thing, as many may feel that the students/families should bear the brunt of the cost. That’s a perfectly valid opinion. The numbers only tell part of the story when you have the TOPS elephant in the room, as well. I’m just trying to point out the reality of why tuition costs have increased so much.

Does HoPE pay for a full ride or just a certain amount as a stipend?

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Because of who you voted for

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Shut the fkn thread down

Government subsidized loans.

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This is where the real racket is. $742 for “fees” is absolutely insane. So is almost $4k for housing. That’s roughly $850 a month for what I assume is a shared room of about 200 sqft.

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Indeed. Other parents whose children have attended there let me know it’s much cheaper when they can live off campus.

For all you stupid mfers blaming democrats, student aid was cut basically in half in Reagan era and gapped a little bit with loans.

I am not a ducking Democrat btw, but this isn’t a partisan deal, it’s a class deal

As an out of state LSU ChE major, my cost for tuition, room , board and books was about $1100/ semester.

I made more my first year working after graduation, than I spent on my degree at LSU

Go look at the administrative costs. Too many programs, too many employees and watered down education.


Public education at the post secondary level is just a federal money grab.