College & Workforce Readiness

Commission Urges Broad Cooperation on Curbing College Costs

By Jessica L. Sandham — January 28, 1998 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A congressionally appointed panel says families should save more for college, postsecondary institutions need to rein in costs, and government at all levels must ease excessive regulations to make higher education more accessible.

The 11 members of the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education approved their report on college costs--which includes 42 separate recommendations--during their final meeting last week. Congress formed the panel last year in anticipation of the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which governs federal student-aid programs.

If colleges and universities don’t work to limit costs and lower tuition increases, “others will do it for them,” said the committee’s vice chairman, Barry Munitz, referring to the possibility of government regulation.

“The bottom line is to try to make college less expensive,” Mr. Munitz, a former chancellor of the California State University system who now heads the Los Angeles-based J. Paul Getty Trust, said at the meeting. “Colleges and universities are not given a divine right to act separately and independently. They must be held accountable.”

The tone of the final report deviated from that of a December draft, which, in arguing against government-imposed price controls, suggested that college costs are largely exaggerated.

In an angry, public response to the draft findings, Rep. Bill Goodling, the Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, and Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., the chairman of the panel’s postsecondary education subcommittee, issued a statement reiterating the original mission of the cost panel.

“We want to remind the commission of its legislative mandate to investigate the rising costs of higher education--not to engage in a debate over whether there is a cost crisis,” the representatives said. “Any suggestion that we do not have a cost crisis flies in the face of common sense.”

Shedding Light

The final commission report does not advocate imposing federal cost controls to keep college tuition in check. Instead, it recommends that colleges and universities form consortia to jointly purchase goods and services, share facilities, and make costly academic programs more accessible.

It also recommends that the postsecondary community lead a public-awareness campaign to help people better understand the actual price of a college education, as well as “the returns on this investment.” Individual institutions should detail how they spend money, providing facts on issues such as administrative costs, average class size, and technology expenditures, the commissioners say.

“Most colleges and universities have been poor in reporting where their money comes from and where it goes,” Mr. Munitz said.

The report acknowledges that public anxiety over the price of college is real, but says that concern may be deceptive, noting the difference between an institution’s “sticker price” and what students actually pay after receiving financial aid.

‘More Light Than Heat’

By defining such differences, the report “sheds more light than heat on the college-cost issue,” said Stanley O. Ikenberry, the president of the American Council on Education, an umbrella organization representing postsecondary institutions. And while the report asks colleges to put cost-saving measures higher on their agendas, Mr. Ikenberry said that many schools are already making some of the recommended changes.

The most important thing the report does, he added, is to provide a common frame of reference on college costs for lawmakers and postsecondary officials heading into the HEA reauthorization.

The report also asks that national, state, and local governments free colleges from burdensome rules that, for example, hold institutions handling small amounts of toxic substances to the same standards as “manufacturing enterprises handling the same materials by the ton.” Congress also must simplify how financial aid is delivered, the report asserts, and provide more money for existing financial-aid programs.

Finally, saying that the report is as much a statement to the American public as it is to Congress, the commissioners suggested that people must understand that a good education is not necessarily the most expensive. Through careful financial planning, the report says, students and families must “shoulder part of the load.”

Related Tags:

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness The New FAFSA Is a Major Headache. Some High Schools Are Trying to Help
High schools are scrambling to help students navigate what was supposed to be a simpler process.
4 min read
Image of a laptop, and a red "x" for a malfunction.
IIIerlok_Xolms/iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Explainer Students With Undocumented Parents Have Hit a FAFSA Road Block. Here Are 3 Options
A FAFSA expert provides advice for a particularly vulnerable group of families.
4 min read
Social Security benefits identification card with 100 dollar bills
JJ Gouin/iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Infographic Students Feel Good About Their College Readiness. These Charts Tell a Different Story
In charts and graphs, a picture unfolds of high school students’ lack of preparedness for college.
2 min read
Student hanging on a tearing graduate cap tassel
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness How International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement Programs Compare
Both the IB and AP programs allow students to earn college credit in high school. Though how the program operate can differ.
1 min read
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Zack Wittman for Education Week