Fox ran a special report on the cost of college Sunday evening. Newt Gingrich was the host and it featured economists Richard Vedder (read his take on the program here) and James Heckman. Although the show raised some good points (e.g., the mandatory fees racket for sports and student clubs, the possibility that government subsidies are actually driving up college costs, the use of TAs instead of professors to teach classes at research schools, and the extravagent spending on things like climbing walls that are not related to instruction), I found it generally disappointing. Discussion of the good points was mostly superficial in order to focus on the anecdotal examples at the core of the program.

Two especially maddening points:

1. High and/or rising costs were repeatedly cited, but it was unclear whether the figures were sticker prices or prices net of various forms of financial aid. (I suspect the former but it was not clear.) There's a big difference since many colleges discount 40% or more (on average, not for every student) off of the sticker prices. Would one reach the same conclusion that college is expensive and getting more so? Probably, but either way it's more appropriate to use the net number which more closely corresponds to what students actually pay.

I though the show was on sounder ground when it pointed out that colleges' price discrimination regime was premised on requiring students to provide detailed family financial information via FAFSA. The form is required of students seeking federal aid (e.g., Pell Grants) but is it also required of students seeking only institutionally funded aid? In a related vein, how much of the rising cost of college can be traced back to mandates from accrediting agencies or government?

2. One of the students profiled in the show was a young woman from New York. Her family claimed it would be unable to afford college even though it had a family income of $135k. Sure NY is an expensive place to live and a tax hell, but there was no evidence that the family had done any substantial saving in anticipation of the daughter going to college or that she had considering more than the two colleges (UMass Amherst and SUNY-Albany) discussed in the program. I found this student's situation to be an unconvincing example of difficulty affording college and found myself muttering "cry me a river" during most of her portion of the program.