Wednesday, August 19, 2009

College Tuition Rose Faster Than Medical Costs

Mark Perry on Carpe Diem blog noticed that college tuition from 1979 to 2009 increased more than health care costs. College tuition rose an average of 7.74 percent per year while medical care costs rose 6 percent per year in the same period.

I actually believe improving education in the US and reducing college costs are a more important issue than health care reform. What ever happens to health care reform, there will always be enough able bodied workers in the US. Costs is really the only concern about medical care and the government is mostly responsible for that result through the employer deduction for health benefits.

However, without educated graduates from our high schools and colleges, the US economy will not grow sufficiently for an improvement in the standard of living of its residents. The US will either have to substitute foreign educated workers or face periods of slow economic growth.

The issue in education, unlike in medicine, is the quality of the service provided. The poor quality of US education leads to a large number of poorly educated, unprepared students, dropouts and graduates in this country. Poorly educated Americans will hurt our economic growth.

Read Perry's entire post here.

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