As always seems to be the case once or twice each year, usually around the opening of school and toward the end of the school year, the discussion of the cost of college comes up and how incredibly expensive it has become. 

Just yesterday I was reading a piece where it said that only 36% of the nation believes a college education is valuable. Most of the reasons given had to do with the high cost and the debt frequently assumed by the student or the hardships taken on by families who try to pay all or most of it. 

That started me thinking…why IS it now so expensive? 

Here is some of the background:

In 1970, Harvard (then as now, the preeminent college/university) cost $4,070, which was less than half of the median family income, then $9,870

By 1975, Harvard’s tuition had increased to $5,350.

It was a $325 increase from the previous year.

In 1970 Manhattan College (a well respected mid-major college) , (full disclosure: my alma mater 1970-1974) a full year of tuition was: $2330

In 1974 when I graduated it was $2900

My parents combined income in 1970 was $13,000 (they were both working) and along with a small grant from the State of NY (called Pell Grant at the time), of $300 per year and a Manhattan College grant of $270 per year they were able to fully fund my entire four years of tuition. I also worked nights, weekends and summers to pay for the associated costs along with my car costs, but graduated debt free.

The entire cost of my Master’s Degree at Colgate University ‘76-78 was $3600 which was offset by a paid internship, so I took a short term loan for it, and paid it in full in under a year when I received the internship payment again ending up debt free. 

While I grant you that these are tuition costs only and residence costs do add to that, tuition remains the largest percentage of the costs. The other striking comparison is how close together the tuition costs were for Harvard (THE national standard) and Manhattan College (a very good mid-major) as well as how they compared to the median income of the time. 

By comparison on those markers today:

Colgate: (considered a “minor Ivy”)  undergrad: $69,886

Harvard: (THE Ivy) $56,550

Manhattan College: (nice “mid major) $48,658

Median Income: $77,345

Colgate: 90% of median family income

Harvard: 73% of median family income

Manhattan: 63% of median family income

The other shocking thing is the cost of private school tuition as well (many of those schools feeder programs to the Ivy’s and “minor” Ivy’s)

Example: (and again these are JUST the tuition costs, no residence/books/fees etc)

Choate: (CT)  $53,410 

San Domenico: (SF) $62,500

Trinity: (NY) $61,400

All of this brings me to my thoughts on the “long game” the Project 2025 et al folks have been and are playing, the idea that if you have an undereducated population those folks are easier to manipulate, easier to indoctrinate and have far fewer skills to critically gather and analyze information beyond what they are “told” and what information is being fed to them. That starts at the beginning of the education stream, if you control that stream you dictate what the “facts” are. If you are told that there was a benefit to slavery because it gave the slaves some real skills, you start to believe it. If the books you don’t want are banned and burned and destroyed, over the decades they will fade into the ether and at some point will either be incredibly difficult to find or worse, cease to exist. If the best education is reserved only for those who can “afford” it, as opposed to access for almost anyone, then you control both the top tier and with that you can subjugate the middle and bottom tier (and ultimately there is only two tiers, those who control and those who are controlled. 

If you discourage or prevent or eliminate critical thinking you minimize the risk that those not in the controlling factor will ever be challenged by the “others”. If you close off any and all access to improvement via education you shut and lock the doors to anyone not already at the top. If the only progeny who have access to the avenues closed to others are those already sitting in the high castle, then you have accomplished your mission for the foreseeable future. 

Ask yourself who controls the institutions where the costs have become almost prohibitive for many, the same people who control the lending institutions and set the rules and regulations for the predatory lending that is the last “carrot” at the end of the stick available to those who are willing to assume almost impossible debt to work through the system. 

So you do it, you graduate with one or multiple degrees from any of the esteemed institutions, you are still not part of the “good old boy” network of the others, you get a “good job” and have a “bright future” but for 10-30 years…YEARS, a large chunk of your income goes to pay off that debt…(don’t believe me? Read the multiple pieces about Sallie Mae ). 

The elite universities and prep schools have endowments that would likely make it available to anyone who wanted to attend should they feel the need to let them. But they don’t, they won’t, they will pay enough lip service to show how magnanimous they are and how welcoming they are, just not to you and your family this time. 

Just how quickly do you think the endowments would dry up if they were not allocated exactly as the “check writers” directed them to be allocated? 

Let’s just say you are a two income family with a comfortable home in a suburban setting in a nice town or city, you take vacations every year and you pay your taxes dutifully. The median family income for 2024 is $77,345 What that means is that fully 50% of the national family households are BELOW that…so even if you sit directly on the median a family would have to spend approximately 73% of their PRE TAX income (and we all know that if you are on that median that your actual take home is likely less than 73% of your gross) to be able to attend Harvard (assuming, of course, that you are in the 3-5% of the applicants who are accepted. 

Let’s say you wanted to improve your child’s chances of Ivy or Minor Ivy and send them to prep school. If you are at the median and it’s a boarding prep school (as most of the truly elite are) you would have to spend around120% of your PRE TAX income just to do that, and that’s for the 4 years BEFORE you then spend another 4 in college…

Do you get the idea now? Why is it so expensive? So it can become more and more elite, so the DeVos, Koch, Miller cadre (who, btw, want to eliminate the US Department of Education ) can control education. If you keep the lemmings uneducated they will simply follow along..

That, sadly, is the long game…tell me I’m wrong? I’d love to be wrong…though I don’t think so…and don’t let them fool you that “financial assistance is always available”, of course it is…have you been through the process with your own kids, for yourself, or know someone else who has been that route? Most of it is LOANS…predatory loans….