Just in case you thought tuitions are too high…

For a long time, I’ve wondered how tuitions can be so high when many colleges and universities have amazingly huge endowments. Now I know.

They’re not spending any part of the endowment, not even the parts that are not marked for specific purposes. So instead of helping students and families afford a good education, schools continue to increase tuition, thereby increasing the debt load for students and their families.

Lynne Munson has an excellent piece in USA Today detailing how colleges spend – OR DON’T SPEND – their monies and what that means for the rest of us.  As Munson explains it, using only a small portion of their endowment interest (not the principle), schools could save students a significant amount. Think of the savings to students, families, and taxpayers who subsidize government guaranteed student loans. Imagine people graduating from college relatively debt free as they start their adult lives, careers, families, etc. That would be a better place. Read more.