The Devil's in the Performance-Based Details

By Michael J. Garanzini. The process to reauthorize the Higher Education Act is in full swing, and both the White House and Congress appear to have admirable goals. Everyone agrees that students and parents should have more information about the institutions they are considering, that college needs to be more affordable, and that degree completion has real value in the marketplace. There's little to argue about thus far. The devil, however, is in the details.
Underlying those stated goals is the public perception that college is unaffordable for America's middle class. Annual tuition hikes often exceed inflation by two and even three times. At the same time, salaries of some college presidents appear to be out of line, at least with the public's view of what the job entails. And information about things such as completion and default rates are hard to obtain. More...