As I know, may be I am wrong. 1.Most colleges and universities are not-for-profit or state funded with tax money. 2 Most professors and associate professors don’t have millions dollars salary. 3. They don’t pay property tax or sales tax. So most expenses are low, so then why the tuitions are raised much higher than inflation. In profit businesses, we can blame shareholders, greedy CEOs, greedy doctors, greedy lawyers, but not for profit colleges and universities explanation for high tuitions.
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So, there are a few points off on your original premise. I tried to break down into a list:
1) Public universities are state funded – While public schools do receive some state funding, it’s probably a lot less than you might think. At my alma mater, state funding was less than 10% of revenue. Tuition & fees made up approx 50% State funding across the country has been on a pretty consistent decline since the Great Recession.
2) Property tax – While it varies by state, many schools, especially private ones, do have to pay property taxes.
3) Low pay – Looking at my alma mater, there are approximately 1,400 faculty members making an average of $90k. On top of that, there are an additional 3,700 staff members. While it’s unusual for a single professor to be making millions, the faculty payroll at my college exceeded $125 million.
4) There is also an “arms race” in colleges. Most schools do NOT compete on who is going to give the best education since they’re often all pretty comparable. This results in massive spending on new dorms, fitness centers, student unions, etc… At my alma mater, this most recently showed as a new $210 million residence hall.
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