And politicians keep us believing that bigger loans make college more affordable

One of the biggest changes since WW II has been the participation of ordinary citizens in higher education.  The G.I. Bill made it far easier for working men and women to get a degree or more technical training – albeit, at the public expense.  Which is fine by me (up to a point and dollar amount).  From the New York Times:

The rising cost of college — even before the recession — threatens to put higher education out of reach for most Americans, according to the annual report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Over all, the report found, published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families.

“If we go on this way for another 25 years, we won’t have an affordable system of higher education,” said Patrick M. Callan, president of the center, a nonpartisan organization that promotes access to higher education.

So, when Politicians try to woo you with the promise of "we have to make college more affordable – make the loans easier to get!", don’t believe them.  Sure, they are making paying the bill at the time easier – but that is not the same as affordable.  Neither are bigger or more grants – while that means that the student or the family doesn’t have to pay the bill, the rest of us do.  That still doesn’t make the price cheaper.

All this means is that while the politicians may be raising the floor, the colleges with their bloated staffs are raising the ceiling on expenses even faster.  Affordable will actually have to mean lowering that ceiling so that the overall cost is lower.  Merely changing the delta between the two doesn’t cut it – that floor still has to get paid somehow…

(H/T: Phi Beta Cons)