However, the needed reforms will come easier if markets become more efficient and public accountability is improved. The real sticker price of tuition at colleges and universities will continue to grow, probably at rates averaging as much as one or two points over inflation, unless imperfections in the educational marketplace can be mitigated. Such increases are consistent with typical internal inflation rates in higher education. They also reflect an arms race of expenditures triggered by the pursuit of prestige. A more efficient market would rein in the arms race, discipline prices, and encourage better productivity and growth by substitution.
Tuition depends as much on markets as on costs.
While institutions may occasionally exercise voluntary restraint, they usually charge as much as the market and the politics of their situations permit. This behavior is not inappropriate. Such enterprises seek to achieve results deemed to be in the public interest. Provided they are efficient, the more money they spend the more they can accomplish. Tuition probably won t grow to levels where enrollments drop off significantly.