More Kerry Pessimism Discredited

Now USA Today exposes Kerry's lies about college tuition and exposes the higher tuition scam. Kevin

USA Today blows a big hole in one of Kerry's biggest rhetorical points:

What students pay on average for tuition at public universities has fallen by nearly one-third since 1998, thanks to new federal tax breaks and a massive increase in state and federal grants to most students and their families.

Contrary to the widespread perception that tuition is soaring out of control, a USA TODAY analysis found that what students actually pay in tuition and fees — rather than the published tuition price — has declined for a vast majority of students attending four-year public universities. In fact, today's students have enjoyed the greatest improvement in college affordability since the GI bill provided benefits for returning World War II veterans.

What made the difference: a $22 billion annual increase in grants and tax breaks since 1998.

That 80% jump in financial aid — targeting middle-class families earning $40,000 to $100,000 a year — has more than offset dramatic increases in tuition prices.

"College still takes a big chunk out of most families' income. But the average student is much better off today than headlines would have you believe," says Sandy Baum, an economist who co-authors an annual report on college costs for the College Board, which oversees college entrance exams.

For months, John Kerry - while insisting he is an optimist - has been saying that higher education is absolutely out of reach for the middle class in America. Which is about as accurate as his claim that we're in the worst economy since the Great Depression.

From Kerry's issues page on his web site: "While George Bush gives tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, students are struggling to find the support they need to succeed.

Back on April 12: A Kerry release stated, "George Bush’s reckless fiscal policies have led to the largest state fiscal crisis in fifty years.

Back on April 14: Kerry charged that "the administration's domestic policies have put the cost of college out of reach for many young Americans

Kerry said Bush's economic policies have squeezed middle-class families. "College tuitions have gone up 28 percent in the last three years.

At public universities, students are paying roughly 27 percent of the official tuition price. Students pay more at private schools, but private tuition actually paid has gone up only 7 percent during the past five years, less than the 20 percent rise in the official price.

It is positively raining college aid, meaning students are in a tight competition with the elderly over who can be more pampered by government. Eight new federal tuition tax breaks have been created since 1997. Total federal and state financial aid hit a record $49 billion in 2003, according to USA Today.

The game for universities is obvious — hike official tuition rates ever higher. Then everyone thinks students cannot afford college and plies them with more aid, which ends up lining the pockets of the schools. It's one of the great scams of our time, and Kerry has been happy to play along by hyping nominal tuition increases and promising yet more aid. He is the dream candidate of greedy college administrators.

The problem isn't that students hungry for knowledge are being frozen out from college, but the opposite. Marginal students take their generous aid and go to colleges that don't teach them. Eighty percent of universities aren't selective, e.g. more or less happy to accept anyone who shows up with a check. Only 37 percent of first-time freshmen graduate in four years, and only 60 percent graduate in six years. Universities are happy to take money from unprepared students and fail them right back out, or dumb down their standards to stay on the government-aid gravy train.