Yet, tuition is the piece of overall college cost most familiar to families, and it, as we all know, has increased faster than other prices in the economy. Between 1965-94, tuition and fees grew by 70 percent or more, depending on the type of institution, according to the US Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. That is staggering. Considered another way, the average annual tuition bill took about 10 percent of median family income in 1994 compared with 6 percent in 1976. Yet, as a share of the nation's GDP, higher education consumes no more national resources today than it did five years ago and only marginally more than it did in 1969-70.
Some pundits say families are paying more so professors can earn more doing less.
But if Time wants to blame faculty for higher tuition bills, it is barking up the wrong tree. True, faculty salaries have risen steadily since 1981, but only after tumbling the previous decade. Measured in constant dollars, average salaries of professors at all ranks in all colleges and universities are lower now than they were in 1972. There are other answers to the riddle. The share of higher education revenues provided by the government has fallen dramatically since 1959-60 at both public and private institutions.