Tuition at Texas universities has more than doubled in the 12 years since state lawmakers authorized colleges to set their own rates.
Now legislators are pushing to take back that control. It’s not a new idea, but it stands a chance for the first time since 2003, when the state deregulated tuition, largely because it enjoys rare bipartisan support. More...

By Jim Rogers. I do not believe many Americans would claim that secondary education in this country today stands as the best in the world. Indeed, most seem to agree that American primary and secondary education today is pretty hopeless. But those same people will insist, in the same paragraph, that American tertiary education is unequaled. Read more...

By Regina Deil-Amen. President Obama's plan to make the first two years of community college free would finally reward rather than punish students who are frugal about college costs. The majority of our nation's students, almost 60 percent, begin their postsecondary education in a community college, which is the most inexpensive college option, with an average annual tuition of $3,260. More...

By Richard D. Kahlenberg. In The Tyranny of the Meritocracy, Lani Guinier argues that the SATs have become “accurate reflectors of wealth and little else.”
Two decades ago, Lani Guinier became a liberal icon when President Bill Clinton proposed—and then withdrew, under conservative pressure—her nomination to head of the Justice Department’s civil-rights division. More...

By Michele Waxman Johnson. We've all heard Horace Mann's quote about education being the great equalizer, and we've seen the evidence that education is the best pathway out of poverty. With that said, paying for college today has become a complex maze with the potential to stop low and moderate income students and families in their tracks before a college application is ever submitted. More...

By Jen A. Miller. Customer experience, big data, ‘the business of education’ is in the spotlight for 2015 at colleges and universities. The calendar flipping over into 2015 doesn't mean a new academic year for most American college and university students, but it does mean a new beginning for higher-education CIOs.
We asked four CIOs about what they're looking forward to in the new year, what changes are in store on their campuses, and how they see the role of the higher-ed CIO evolving. More...

By Fawn Johnson. We don't know how it will be paid for. We don't know how much it will cost.
White House officials didn't have a lot of details last week about President Obama's proposal to offer free tuition to community colleges. They didn't know how much it would cost. They don't know where the money would come from. They don't know if Congress is interested. More...

By Grace Lyden. MOORHEAD – If Jeremy Johnson attended Minnesota State University Moorhead today instead of 15 years ago, he “absolutely” would want to download a mobile application the school is developing. More...

By Janell Ross. Tuition is only part of the problem at two-year institutions.
Late last week, President Obama announced a sweeping community-college tuition plan that drew on the usual superlatives. The plan has already been described as a "moon shot" that could universalize the first two years of college and denounced as yet another part of the president's latent socialist agenda. Others have labeled it an unfunded pipe dream. More...

By Brian C. Mitchell. In a recent blog in the Washington Post, Max Ehrenfreund suggests that private colleges are a waste of money for white, middle class kids. He asks: "Is it worth unloading your life's savings or having your child take on tens of thousands of dollars in student loans?" More...